Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliyev and Armenian President Robert Kocharian discussed ways to resolve the conflict at a tete-a-tete meeting. Afterwards, they were joined by Acting President Vladimir Putin.
After the trilateral talks, Mr Putin said that Russia had done and would continue doing everything possible to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and was willing to act as a guarantor of any Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements. He said he hoped that the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan would have a positive outcome and end the many-year confrontation.
He said it was important that Mr Aliyev and Mr Kocharian were determined to reach an agreement, even though the problem was a complicated one for both countries.
The Russian side released a special statement after the trilateral talks.