Azerbaijan troops on the edge of Karabakh stronghold

Azerbaijani troops are on the edge of Nagorno-Karabakh's separatist stronghold of Stepanakert, prompting residents to hide in basements in fear, a rebel envoy told AFP yesterday.

"The situation in Stepanakert is horrible, Azerbaijani troops are all around the city, they are on the outskirts and people fear Azerbaijani soldiers could enter the city at any moment and start killings," separatist spokeswoman Armine Hayrapetyan said.

Hayrapetyan, who represents the separatist government's information centre in Yerevan, said Stepanakert and other parts of Nagorno-Karabakh have lost most basic services since Baku's lightning offensive to recapture the ethnically Armenian enclave.

"No electricity, no gas, no food, no fuel, no internet and telephone connection," Hayrapetyan said. "People are hiding in basements."

Armenian separatists agreed to lay down their arms in the face of clashes that they said killed 200 people.

They held an initial round of Russian-mediated integration talks with Azerbaijani representatives on Thursday.

"We have so many casualties, dead and wounded people," Hayrapetyan said, without providing details.

The separatists said yesterday they were negotiating the withdrawal of their troops from the disputed enclave.

International pressure has mounted on Azerbaijan to re-open the only road leading to Armenia, dubbed the Lachin Corridor, so that supplies and people can move in and out.

The fighting has been marked by abuses on both sides and there are fears of a new refugee crisis among Nagorno-Karabakh's estimated 120,000 ethnic-Armenian residents.