Armenian, Azerbaijani Leaders In Paris For Talks

French President Francois Hollande will host the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in a fresh attempt to discuss the disputed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

French officials said Hollande will meet separately in Paris on October 27 with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The Armenian president's office said Sarkisian and Aliyev will meet afterwards.

There has been a major increase in violence along the line of contact between Armenian Karabakh forces and Azerbaijani troops with more than 20 soldiers being killed there since August.

Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since Armenian-backed separatists seized it from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s.

Dinara Yunusova, the daughter of jailed Azerbaijani rights activist Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif, has urged Hollande to ask Aliyev to free her parents.

Based on reporting by AFP and Interfax