RUSSIA’S LAVROV SEES PROGRESS IN TACKLING KARABAKH CONFLICT

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Dec 20 2006

MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) – The outgoing year has seen a
substantial progress in contacts between Armenia and Azerbaijan on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said at a news conference on Wednesday.

He said that Russia is one of co-chairmen of the OSCE’s Minsk Group
on Nagorno-Karabakh, whose key goal is "to help the sides come to
agreement".

Lavrov refused to predict a time of settlement of the conflict,
saying that making prognoses was "unrewarding".