Azerbaijan says 'last chance' for Armenia to settle conflict peacefully

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Friday that Baku was giving Armenia a "last chance" to peacefully resolve their conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, as talks between the two sides began in Moscow.

Baku and Yerevan have been locked in deadly clashes over Karabakh since September 27 -- the heaviest fighting since the 1994 ceasefire that ended their war for control of the enclave.

"We are giving Armenia a chance to settle the conflict peacefully. This is their last chance," Aliyev said in a televised address to the nation as the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers began Russian-mediated talks in Moscow.

"The only path towards resolving the issue is the liberation of our territories," he said, adding that "there will be no negotiations if Armenia's foreign minister says Karabakh belongs to Armenia" during the talks in Moscow.

"We are winning" on the battlefield, he said. "We will get our lands back and restore our territorial integrity."

Karabakh, Azerbaijan's ethnically Armenian region, broke away from Baku in a 1990s war that claimed the lives of some 30,000 people.

The territory - together with seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan -- has since remained under the control of Yerevan-backed separatist forces.

The mountainous enclave of some 140,000 is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.