By empty (3/26/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Ilham Aliyev told journalists in Baku on 24 March on his return from an official visit to Tashkent that there is no truth to Armenian claims that during talks in early 2001 in Paris and Florida, his father and predecessor, former President Heidar Aliyev, reached agreement with Armenian President Robert Kocharian on resolving the Karabakh conflict. Armenian officials have repeatedly said the two presidents reached an informal agreement, but the late Azerbaijani president and other senior Azerbaijani officials have steadfastly denied it. Addressing a conference in Bratislava last week, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said Heidar Aliyev and Kocharian committed to paper in Florida in April 2001, but did not sign, an agreement reached orally in Paris two months earlier.

By empty (3/25/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

President Saakashvili told journalists on 24 March that he has information that Adjar State Council Chairman Aslan Abashidze is seeking to hire foreign mercenaries in Chechnya and Ukraine for use in the event of an armed standoff with the central Georgian government. Abashidze denied those allegations. In Kyiv, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned Georgian Ambassador Grigol Katamadze on 25 March and demanded an explanation of Saakashvili\'s remarks, which it termed \"inadmissible\" in the light of Ukraine\'s efforts to help resolve the Abkhaz conflict.

By empty (3/24/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles signed a new bilateral agreement on security assistance on 23 March, Civil Georgia reported.