According to the Associated Press news agency, after meeting with Aliyev, Chirac expressed support for international mediators who last week urged all sides to compromise over the enclave, which is inside Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war in the early 1990s.

Aliyev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian have traded hostile statements since talks between them in February in France broke down. There has also been in increase in the number of violent incidents along the border.

Speaking today at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Aliyev called Karabakh "a black hole of Europe."

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