Azerbaijan says 7 Armenian soldiers killed last week

"The situation along the front line remains tense. In a week, Armenian military units have violated the cease-fire regime on 834 occasion, using mortars and high-caliber submachine guns," the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement.

"Over the past week, seven Armenian soldiers were killed and many more were wounded," it added.

Armenia, for its part, said two soldiers with the so-called army for the defense of Karabakh died Friday while trying to impede a sabotage action by Azerbaijani forces.

In Yerevan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met Saturday with a top representative of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe to discuss the difficult situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and on the Nagorno-Karabakh front.

Armenians captured nearly one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, in a war after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

While major hostilities ended with a cease-fire in 1994, no peace agreement has been signed despite talks mediated by Russia, France and the United States.

Armenia has yet to comply with four UN Security Council resolutions demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territory.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned that it reserves the right to use force to regain control of the territory.