Stepanakert has criticized the naming of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno-Karabakh as a territory used for illegal drug transit in a U.S. Department of State report. Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Minister Georgy Petrosian and police chief Armen Isagulov sent a letter to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Anne Patterson, in which they declared that \"Nagorno-Karabakh is not a transit route for illegal drugs.\" The Department of State\'s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) for 2006 \"again identifies Nagorno-Karabakh and territories it controls as a drug transit route, unlike in the previous years, when explanations given by the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities helped reach understanding on this issue,\" the Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry told Interfax. \"We would like to once again assure you with all due responsibility that Nagorno-Karabakh is not a drug transit route, not only due to the absence of a developed transportation and communication system resulting from Azerbaijan\'s continuing blockade of the republic, but primarily thanks to efficient preemptive efforts by Nagorno-Karabakh law enforcement agencies,\" Petrosian and Isagulov said in the letter. \"This incorrect information was given by Azerbaijan, which has made the falsification and discrediting of Armenia an element of its policy,\" they said. The authors regretted that \"the report cites unconfirmed information, while repeated calls by the Karabakh authorities on putting together an independent monitoring team and sending it to Nagorno-Karabakh with a fact-finding mission have not yet evoked a response from the relevant international institutions.\" Nagorno-Karabakh would welcome such a monitoring team capable of drawing an independent and objective conclusion, they said. (Interfax)