Azeri leader does not exclude war for Nagorno Karabakh

"War is a catastrophe, but Azerbaijan is ready for any turn of developments. We cannot wait forever," Aliyev said at a meeting with German political, economic and public figures on Thursday.

He said Azerbaijan would never agree either to the independence of Nagorno Karabakh or to its unification with Armenia.

"The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has never and will never be an issue of compromise," he said, adding the referendum in the unrecognized republic, at which 98.58 of local residents voted for independence, was unlawful.

Aliyev stressed Azerbaijan has been heavily arming itself of late to protect its territorial integrity. This year it has a one-billion US dollar military budget.

"It is more than the whole budget of Armenia and the figure will grow," Aliyev said, adding his country was actively developing the military-industrial complex, acquiring new weapons and hardware, and promoting domestic arms production.

The president of Azerbaijan said his foreign policy priority was "integration into the North Atlantic space" and partnership with NATO.

Besides, Azerbaijan wants to be a reliable energy supplier for Europe and can daily ship a million barrels of oil via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

It also launched production at the major gas field Shakh Deniz, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline has been commissioned.

"The potential of Azerbaijan in the energy sphere is very high," the president said. Itar-Tass