WASHINGTON URGES TO SPEED UP KARABAKH TALKS

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
October 3, 2008 Friday 3:06 PM MSK
Russia

Baku and Yerevan should step up the negotiating process to resolve the
Karabakh conflict, said U.S. deputy secretary of State John Negroponte.

Talks should be intensified to speed up the reaching of a consensus
between Azerbaijan and Armenia , Negroponte said at a meeting with
Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku on Friday.

Mammadyarov said, for his part, that the only possible solution to the
Karabakh conflict is the one that reflects Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. "This is why Armenia should withdraw its troops from
occupied Azeri territories and refugees and displaced persons should
return there," the foreign minister said.

Negroponte arrived in Azerbaijan on October 2 on a formal visit.