Armenia says it will work with OSCE on ceasefire

Armenia said on Friday it would engage with a European security watchdog on renewing a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh as the death toll rose from five days of fighting over the breakaway enclave in South Caucasus.

Azerbaijan, which is fighting ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, has not responded to a call for a ceasefire on Thursday by France, the United States and Russia - co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) watchdog's Minsk Group which mediates in the crisis. But Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev ruled out talks with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday and Azerbaijan's ally Turkey said on Thursday the three big powers should have no role in peacemaking.

Nagorno- Karabakh's defence ministry reported 54 new military casualties on Friday, taking the death toll among its forces to 158. Eleven civilians have been reported killed and more than 60 wounded in the mountainous enclave, which is part of Azerbaijan but is run by its mostly ethnic Armenian inhabitants.

The Azeri prosecutor's office said 19 civilians had been killed and 55 wounded in Armenian shelling. Azerbaijan has not reported on casualties among its military forces. Clashes broke out on Sunday between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces in NagornoKarabakh. The enclave is not recognised internationally as independent, and has been the subject of conflict since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The fighting is more serious that at any time since a war in the 1990s in which 30,000 people were killed, and has deepened concern about stability in the South Caucasus, a region where pipelines carry Azeri oil and gas to world markets.