Armenia, Azerbaijan call for resolution of Karabakh dispute

The leaders of bitter ex-Soviet foes Armenia and Azerbaijan on Sunday called for a peaceful resolution of their dispute over the Nagorny Karabakh region after rare peace talks near Moscow.

A joint declaration signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian said the two sides would "continue their work... to agree on a political settlement to the Nagorny Karabakh conflict."

The two sides "agreed that the achievement of a peaceful settlement must be accompanied by legally binding international guarantees of all aspects and stages," the declaration said.

Sunday's talks were hosted by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, acting as Caucasus peacekeeper after Moscow's war with Georgia in August destabilized the volatile region.

An enclave of Azerbaijan with a largely ethnic Armenian population, Nagorny Karabakh broke free of Baku's control in the early 1990s in a war that killed nearly 30,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes.

A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but the dispute remains unresolved after years of negotiations.

Shootings between Armenian and Azeri forces in the region remain common.

Medvedev in October launched the latest push to end the conflict during a visit to Armenia, just two months after sending tanks into nearby Georgia after Tbilisi moved to retake its rebel region of South Ossetia.

A resolution of the Karabakh dispute would be a boost to the whole South Caucasus region -- Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia -- said the declaration, read aloud by Medvedev at a signing ceremony at his residence outside Moscow.

International guarantees "would contribute to the improvement of the situation in the South Caucasus to restore stability and safety to the region... and create favourable conditions for economic development," it said.

In October, Sarkisian said he was ready for talks on the basis of principles worked out at negotiations in Madrid last year that would give Nagorny Karabakh the right to self-determination.

The Kremlin would act as guarantor of a new accord, an administration official was quoted as saying ahead of Sunday's talks.

In supporting the peace process, Moscow is bidding to boost its influence in the region, analysts said.

Moscow is vying for influence with Washington in Azerbaijan, a key energy exporter that ships oil and gas through Western-backed pipelines through Georgia and Turkey, bypassing Russia.

The Kremlin could strengthen its position in the region by pushing close ally Armenia toward compromise on the issue, Armenian political analyst Stepan Grigorian said.