GENTHOD, Switzerland Leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan Sunday began new talks here Sunday on the disputed territory Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly Armenian-populated enclave inside Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev and Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian were holding a second round of talks on the region. A dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh caused a major conflict after the two Caucasian states became independent following the fall of the Soviet Union, of which they had previously been constituent republics.

"Our goal is to reach a proposal which will satisfy both sides," Aliyev told journalists on his departure from Baku Saturday. Aliyev and Kocharian met in Geneva just over a month ago in talks that were described as productive but did not yield a breakthrough. Baku and Yerevan fought a six-year undeclared war over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave that declared independence from Azerbaijan and tried to unite with Armenia. More than 30,000 people died and close to one million were displaced during the conflict.

A ceasefire was signed in 1994, but negotiations have failed to produce a final peace agreement. (AFP)