YEREVAN, Nov. 28 (RFE/RL) - The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan discussed on Tuesday ways of breaking the deadlock in the stalled Nagorno-Karabagh peace talks, meeting in Vienna on the sidelines of a high-level gathering of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told RFE/RL by telephone that he and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Vilayat Guliev, spoke on "how to speed up the peace process," which has shown no signs of progress over the past year.

Oskanian said they also discussed the possibility of yet another face-to-face meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents who will be attending a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Minsk on Friday.

The conflicting parties seemed nearer a mutually acceptable solution last year, following a series of direct talks between the two leaders. Mediators from the OSCE's Minsk Group have urged them to continue the dialogue.

Oskanian said the Group's Russian, French and American co-chairs will again tour the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Karabagh capitals next week to hold further discussions on a peace settlement.

Guliev criticized the OSCE mediators for the Karabagh impasse earlier this month, saying that they pin too much hope on the periodical meetings between Presidents Robert Kocharian and Heydar Aliev and should instead come up with new initiatives of their own.

In his speech delivered at the 18th session of the OSCE Ministerial Council, Oskanian urged Europe's main security organization to "look at a new set of tools and initiatives" for conflict resolution. He said a compromise solution to the Karabagh conflict can be found "by striking the right balance between the principles of self-determination and territorial integrity."

"We should not wait for renewed war, new bloodshed and further fragmentation before finding imaginative and effective strategies to help our region emerge from its stalemate," he said. "At no time in history has Nagorno Karabagh been a part of Azerbaijan, with the exception of the Soviet period. Despite this reality, and the realities of the past 10 years -- orderly and legal secession, full control of its territory, a government duly elected by its population -- despite all these, Armenians in Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh are willing to sit around a negotiating table and agree on a status which is also acceptable to Azerbaijan."