(4 Apr 2001)
1. Wide shot of the conference table with President Aliev on the left, Secretary of State Powell in the middle and President Kocharian on the right
2. Cutaway
3. SOUNDBITE: (Translation) Armenian President Robert Kocharian: "I have not made this trip of many miles to Florida to try these propaganda campaigns here or to be a tutor to the co-chairs. No, I have come here to work constructively to seek a settlement, and that's the end of my statement. Thank you very much."
4. Cutaway
5. SOUNDBITE: (Translation) Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliev: "During the difficult negotiations, the Armenian side has always taken a tough and unconstructive position. We cannot come to an agreement because the position of the Armenian side at these talks is based on the presumption that, having occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, it has an advantage. Armenia be all means strives to seize part of the territory of Azerbaijan, annex it, or gain the status of independence for the Nagorno-Karabakh."
6. Powell and company leaving talks and walking to car
STORYLINE:
Secretary of State Colin Powell met the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday, calling for "mutual compromise" to settle a dispute that sparked a devastating war and threatens further conflict in the region.
Powell opened four days of talks on the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mostly ethnic Armenian enclave whose move to secede from Azerbaijan in 1988 prompted six years of fighting that killed more than 15,000 people and drove a million from their homes.
Some estimates of the death toll are twice as high.
Seven years after a cease-fire, Powell said the lack of a peaceful resolution harms both Azerbaijan and Armenia, still struggling for economic revival a decade after the Soviet collapse, and leaves the threat of a new war in the volatile region squeezed between Russia, Turkey and Iran.
A 1994 cease-fire left the enclave and some surrounding territory firmly in the hands of its ethnic Armenians, who have declared its independence.
It is not recognised abroad, and its political status is a major issue in the peace process.
Hundreds of thousands of former residents still live in tent camps and other temporary housing elsewhere in Azerbaijan, and about 200 people are killed every year in violence linked to the dispute and by leftover land mines.
The United States, France and Russia are the leaders of a subgroup of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe that has been seeking to end the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh for nine years.
Powell acknowledged that reaching a resolution will not be easy, calling the Key West talks "just one step on a long road."
Aliev and Kocharian have met 16 times in the past two years, but have failed to reach agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Both are under pressure at home from opposition groups that are extremely wary of giving any ground in a compromise.
The talks took place in the palm-shaded Little White House, a former Navy commandant's residence that was later used frequently by President Harry Truman.
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