Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists in Nagorny Karabakh today announced a ceasefire after four days of bloodshed, as international powers scrambled to end the worst violence in decades over the disputed region.
The two sides said they had agreed to halt fighting from 0800 GMT after clashes since Friday left at least 73 people dead, but Armenia's defence ministry claimed there was still "sporadic shooting" going on.
Key regional powerbroker Russian President Vladimir Putin called the leaders of ex-Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan after the ceasefire agreement and told them to "ensure" an end to the violence.
"Putin called on both sides to urgently ensure a complete cessation of military hostilities and respect for the ceasefire," the Kremlin said in a statement after Putin spoke to the two presidents separately by telephone.
On a visit to a hospital to meet wounded soldiers, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev said the conflict could still be resolved peacefully if Armenia's leadership "behaves sincerely at the negotiating table".
The so-called Minsk Group of the US, French, and Russian ambassadors to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has long mediated Karabakh peace talks, also urged both sides to respect the truce after a meeting in Vienna.
The Minsk Group co-chairs "stressed that it is important to return to the political process on the basis of a sustainable ceasefire," a statement said.
In a flurry of diplomacy the mediators are heading to the region to shuttle between the two warring sides, while Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is set to travel to Yerevan and Baku in the coming days.
Russia's foreign ministry also said that the top diplomats from Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan will focus on the conflict when they meet for planned talks in Baku on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.
On the ground, an AFP photographer in the frontline Azeri town of Terter said that both sides appeared to have stopped shelling today afternoon after a night of sporadic artillery fire across the front.
At the Karabakh army checkpoint near the Iranian border, shelling halted as well around midday, another AFP photographer said.
