The FINANCIAL -- A delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly led by President Joao Soares and special representative Goran Lenmarker will discuss in Azerbaijan the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, an Azerbaijani parliamentary spokesman said, according to RIA Novosti.

The assembly delegation is in Azerbaijani capital Baku in the framework of its visit to the South Caucasus. It will in particular meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and parliamentary spokesman Oktai Asadov.

A long-standing dispute over Nagorny Karabakh, a breakaway region inside Azerbaijan with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population, has been a sticking point in relations between the two South Caucasus states.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war between the two countries over the disputed enclave in early 1990s, which claimed more than 30,000 lives on both sides. Karabakh has since remained under Armenian control. Baku has fiercely opposed any decision on Karabakh that could be interpreted as giving the region independence from Azerbaijan.

The visit to Azerbaijan will end March 16. Prior to the visit, the OSCE delegation had been to Georgia and Armenia.

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