Azernews.Az

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on a visit to Baku last week that the United States will offer a new approach for resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict at the upcoming meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers. She did not elaborate.

The ministers will meet with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Paris on June 18.

``We are already in the year 2012 and it is high time the Karabakh conflict was resolved,`` Clinton told a briefing with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. ``I have promised the presidents of both Azerbaijan and Armenia that we will do everything we can for a solution of this conflict.``

The United States co-chairs the Minsk Group, along with Russia and France. The group has been mediating peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia since a brutal war between the two South Caucasus republics in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since a precarious ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

Secretary Clinton expressed deep concern over the deadly skirmishes that recently occurred on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops.

``I am deeply concerned over the escalation [of tension] on the Line of Contact, which can cause unpredictable consequences. This must stop and everyone should keep working on it and uphold the ceasefire agreement.

``This issue was discussed in my meetings with [Presidents] Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan. We support a settlement of the conflict in accord with the Helsinki Final Act [which stipulates non-use of force, territorial integrity of states and self-determination of nations] and will do everything possible for that. There is no military solution to the Karabakh conflict... The dispute must definitely be settled peacefully,`` Clinton said.

Clinton`s visit came after Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of responsibility for deadly incidents on the contact line of their troops.

Five Azerbaijani soldiers were killed on June 5 in shoot-outs between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops, a day after three Armenian soldiers were reported killed in a skirmish.

Clinton, who visited Armenia on June 4, voiced concern that tensions over Nagorno Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian separatist territory inside Azerbaijan, could lead to a ``broader conflict``.