Budapest, 23 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Hungary would not detain Russian President Vladimir Putin on its territory following the issue of a warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to a senior government official.

"Hungary has never proclaimed the ICC statute," Minister Gergely Gulyás told a press conference in Budapest on Thursday.

The statute contradicted the Hungarian constitution and could not therefore be countersigned by the country's president, added Gulyás, who heads up Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's office.

Orbán and his government were slow to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, and maintain cordial relations with Putin.

Last Friday, the ICC in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes in Ukraine. The Russian president is allegedly responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia, although Russia denies these claims.

Hungary signed the Rome Statute which forms the basis for the ICC in 1999 and ratified it in 2001. However, Gulyás said that the agreement has not been fixed into Hungarian constitution.

The ICC considers Hungary a signatory state.