France hosts new round of Nagorno Karabakh talks

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov are to meet again Nov. 14 in Brussels, said mediators from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's so-called Minsk group, which deals with the conflict.

In Paris, "the two ministers held a constructive meeting in a very frank and open-minded atmosphere," the OSCE said in a statement.

Co-chairs of the Minsk group plan to assess the idea of a third meeting in 2006 between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the statement said.

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said he and his Azerbaijani opposite number Elmar Mammadyarov discussed "new ideas" on how to break the current deadlock in the peace process that were suggested by international mediators during their previous talks held in Moscow on October 6. He told RFE/RL that they agreed to hold yet another meeting three weeks later.

Oskanian said he and Mammadyarov presented their governments' responses to the unspecified ideas put forward by the American, French and Russian co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. "I can't say that there is full congruence in positions," he said. "There are differences. But there are also possibilities to bring our positions closer. So we need to continue to work on it."

"That's why we agreed to hold another round of talks, most probably in Brussels around November 13, so that we continue our discussions to narrow down the differences," continued Oskanian. "If that materializes, it will make possible a meeting between our presidents during this year. There is also a possibility that the co-chairs may come to the region in preparation for the presidents' meeting."

Mammadyarov and other Azerbaijani officials did not immediately comment on the Paris talks that began in the presence of French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.

According to Oskanian, the talks continue to center on the basic principles of a Karabakh settlement that were discussed by Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian during their two face-to-face meetings this year and were disclosed by the mediators afterwards. They call for the conflict's gradual resolution that would culminate in a referendum on Karabakh's status.

Oskanian said the mediators' "new ideas" are aimed at bridging Baku's and Yerevan's differences on some key elements of the proposed peace deal. The Associated Press via The International Herald Tribune; RFE/RL