Kerry: Preference is dialogue to diffuse Ukraine crisis

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

STORY: After meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Rome, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. preference is "to emphasize the possibilities for the dialogue that can lead to the normalization and diffusing of this crisis."

President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered the freezing of U.S. assets and a ban on travel into the United States of those involved in the Russian military intervention into Ukraine's Crimea region.

Obama signed an executive order aimed at punishing those Russians and Ukrainians responsible for the Russian move into Crimea, which has triggered the worst crisis in U.S.-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War.

The order, the White House said in a statement, is "a flexible tool that will allow us to sanction those who are most directly involved in destabilizing Ukraine, including the military intervention in Crimea, and does not preclude further steps should the situation dete