The diplomats from France, Russia and the US stressed the importance of sustaining a climate of trust for intensive negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"As for the repeated statements of Nikol Pashinyan about the need to involve the Nagorno-Karabakh party in the negotiations, we have already commented on them. This is an issue that must be resolved by the parties to the conflict themselves", Lavrov said

The CSTO will discuss the appointment of a new secretary general at its next summit in Astana, scheduled to be held on November 8.

The measure was announced after a meeting between senior officials and the Patriarch on Friday

The visit comes as the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk process that is trying to mediate a solution to the Karabakh conflict are visiting the region.

The process for triggering early elections in Armenia has been completed. Parliament failed to elect a prime minister on a second round triggering the dissolution of parliament and early elections, now scheduled for 9 December.

Zurabishvili made a televised address after speculation on Tuesday that she was about to withdraw her candidacy. Zurabishvili came first in Sunday's first round of presidential elections in Georgia, but failed to secure 50% of votes cast.

Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said: "On any platform or under any condition, Turkey supports the territorial and boundary integrity of Georgia and Azerbaijan. We strongly stress that at every platform."

The Minister said that a direct communications link agreed with the Azerbaijani side was operating and the work was ongoing.

Salome Zurabishvili and Grigol Vashadze will go head to head in a run-off after no candidate secured more than 509% of the vote in Sunday's poll