By empty (9/23/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Meeting last week on the sidelines of the CIS summit in Astana, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan discussed, but failed to reach agreement on, proposals prepared by the two countries\' foreign ministers during four rounds of talks in recent months, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told a press conference in Yerevan on 22 September, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Oskanian said he will not meet again with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov until the two presidents either approve or suggest amendments to those proposals and issue clear instructions to embark on a second, \"more serious\" phase of talks. Oskanian declined to confirm or deny a report that one of the proposals in question is for the withdrawal of Armenian forces from some of the seven Azerbaijani districts they currently occupy in return for an internationally supervised referendum on independence for the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.