The French, Russian, and U.S. co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group arrived in Baku on 31 January and held behind-closed-door talks the following day with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and with President Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijani media reported. In a break with customary procedure, the co-chairmen did not hold a press conference before departing for Yerevan. The presidential press service reported only that the discussion focused on the current stage of talks aimed at resolving the Karabakh conflict. Aliyev is scheduled to meet near Paris next week with his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian to discuss, and possibly formally approve, what are described as \"fundamental principles\" that could form the nucleus of a formal peace settlement. Also on 1 February, President Aliyev affirmed at a cabinet meeting that he will never sign any Karabakh peace agreement that does not preserve Azerbaijan\'s territorial integrity. \"The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is not and never will be the subject of negotiations,\" he said. And in an implicit rejection of the referendum that is rumored to be a key component of the hoped-for peace settlement, Aliyev continued: \"No decision will be taken that would make it possible, either today or in 100 years, to remove Nagorno-Karabakh from the composition of Azerbaijan.\" (zerkalo.az)