President Ilham Aliyev received the OSCE Chairman-in-office Karel De Gucht

According to ANS, during the meeting exchange of views on the issues of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the OSCE, negotiations on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, on the perspectives of the problem settlement and other issues have been held.

"I hope that during the meeting of Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Paris achievement of the accord on the Nagorno Karabakh problem will be possible," the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Foreign Minister of Belgium Karel de Gucht said in a statement on 25 January 2006 in Baku during the news conference.

According to him, the OSCE will consider its priority the activities aimed at the resolving of the conflict also in future. In case presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will start preparations over the agreement, the OSCE will be ready to support implementation of all aspects of the agreement, Karel de Gucht added.

Talking about the stationing of the peacekeeping forces in the conflict area, he said, the OSCE itself has no peacekeeping forces at its disposal and the deployment process is to be proceeded by the negotiations with a number of states, which are ready to send their contingents. However, according to him, the mandate of the peacekeeping forces is to be discussed first. Karel de Gucht noted also, the OSCE is ready to support in rehabilitation and restoration of areas in the conflict zone.

The OSCE chairman called the goal of his visit not considering the issues of the negotiation process, but discussion of the forthcoming February meeting of presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Paris.

OSCE is the organization, carrying out its activities based on the multilateral approach. In case the sides come to the common decision we will back it, Karel de Gucht summarized.

Meanwhile, Karel de Gucht is informed of the existence of the secret prisons on the occupied areas of Azerbaijan, as well as development of the drug trafficking in Nagorno Karabakh, the leader of the Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijani community Nizami Bahmanov said in a statement on 25 January 2006, Trend reports.

"Secret prisons are available on the occupied by Armenia areas of Azerbaijan and tortures over the Azerbaijani prisoners of war are committed there, about which Karel de Gucht has been informed," Bahmanov said.

The head of the Azerbaijani community said also, during the meeting he raised the issue of the official response of the OSCE leadership on the report of the OSCE fact-finding mission over illegal settlement on the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. As for the initiatives on holding referendum over the Nagorno Karabakh future status Bahmanov noted, representatives of the Karabakh both communities will be involved in any voting.

"I do not know what question will be put on referendum. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev states clearly the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is beyond any discussions, and the country’s existing Constitution does not envision holding referendum on any separate territory," the head of the Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijani community noted. Bahmanov said in conclusion, according to the information available, there were no new proposals on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict settlement from the part of Karel de Gucht during his one day visit.