The United States will screen delegates from Ebola-hit countries coming to Washington for an unprecedented U.S.-Africa summit, President Barack Obama said Friday, voicing confidence appropriate measures have been taken.

"Folks that are coming from these countries that have even a marginal risk, or an infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we're making sure we're doing screening on that end as they leave the country," Obama told reporters, adding there would be "additional screening" when they were in the U.S.

President Barack Obama admitted Friday that U.S. officials had "tortured some folks" in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, but urged they not be judged too harshly.

The U.S. administration is expected to release a declassified Senate report in the next few days that will detail alleged abuses by intelligence agents targeting extremist groups in the wake of the attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama agreed during a phone call on Friday the current standoff in Ukraine was not in the interest of their countries, the Kremlin said.

"The presidents agreed that the current situation is not in the interests of either country," said a Kremlin statement.

President Barack Obama, whose election in 2008 as the first black American president sparked huge expectations in Africa, will at last hold a summit next week for the continent's leaders.

Invitations were sent to 50 heads of state and government for talks that seem designed as a counterweight to China's decade-long surge in investment and trade with Africa.

The U.S. Senate approved President Barack Obama's nominee for ambassador to Moscow Thursday, a quick confirmation amid a long backlog of would-be envoys awaiting a vote.

New Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will not attend an unprecedented gathering of African leaders here next week, a U.S. official said Thursday, after he was given a belated invitation.

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted Wednesday to sue President Barack Obama for allegedly overstepping his powers, a move swiftly denounced by his Democratic allies as a cynical election-year stunt.

The United States plans to sell 5,000 Hellfire missiles to Iraq in a $700 million deal, officials said Tuesday, as Washington tries to help Baghdad retake ground captured by Sunni militants.

U.S. President Barack Obama warned Monday that the future stability of the world depends on African nations achieving prosperity and self-reliance, in an address to youth leaders from the continent.

"The security and prosperity and justice that we seek in the world cannot be achieved without a strong and prosperous and self-reliant Africa," he said, kicking off a major African diplomatic push.

The leaders of the United States, Germany, France, Britain and Italy agreed Monday on the need to impose new sanctions on Russia over its presumed role in Ukraine's insurgency, the French presidency said.

President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Francois Hollande, Prime Minister David Cameron and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi "confirmed... their intention to adopt new measures against Russia," the French presidency said after the five leaders held telephone talks.