ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN LEADERS IN KARABAKH TALKS

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
June 11 2007

Presidents Robert Kocharian of Armenia and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
were to continue talks on Sunday on settling the status of the mountain
territory of Nagorny Karabakh, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The two were to meet during an informal gathering of heads of state
of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) group of ex-Soviet
countries in Saint Petersburg, a member of Kocharian’s press service
said.

The talks began on Saturday with the participation of mediators from
France, Russia and the United States.

Western diplomats have indicated that an agreement could be signed
by the end of this year on basic principles for resolving the dispute
over Nagorny Karabakh.

The two ex-Soviet states have remained at loggerheads since they
fought a war in the early 1990s, with corrosive effects for the whole
Caucasus region.

A final settlement still appears out of reach, analysts say.