The Azerbaijani and Armenian heads of state have met to attempt to resolve the longstanding territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

On Sunday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian with hopes of reestablishing Baku's authority over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan lost to Armenia in the 1990s, the AzerTAj state news agency reported.

The meeting took place at the residence of the Consul General of France in Munich and was also joined by the co-chairmen of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Robert Bradtke (US), Bernard Fassier (France), and Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia).

Azerbaijan lost control of the region in a rebellion by local Armenians, who were supported by the military of the Republic of Armenia. The conflict killed tens of thousands of people and displaced over a million others.

However, the international community has refused to recognize the de facto rule of the ensuing Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

"That meeting must play a decisive role in the process of negotiations," the Azerbaijani president said on Friday, adding that should the session end short of a deal, "then our hopes in negotiations will be exhausted and then we are left with no other option" than to reclaim the territory by force.

"We are doing that because we never excluded and we do not exclude that option. We have the full right to liberate our land by military means," he insisted.

HN/SS/HGL