Armenian officials said that Azerbaijan forces engaged in heavy fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region after Azerbaijan launched a new offensive on Saturday.

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Armenian defence ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said: “Heavy fighting is ongoing on other flanks,” while the Azerbaijan defence ministry said it had “captured new footholds in Karabakh”.

At least 200 people have been killed in the fighting which erupted last week.

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Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged “third parties” to stay out of the conflict. Armenia had announced earlier that it would work with Russia, United States and France for a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We (already) saw Syrian fighters taken from the battlefields in Syria to Libya,” the US secretary of state said adding that it “created more instability, more turbulence, more conflict, more fighting, less peace”.

“I think it would do the same thing in the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as well. So I hope that reporting proves inaccurate,” he added.

“This is a longstanding conflict in this border space, when those tensions rise, internationalising this, third parties bringing ammunition, weapon systems … you increase the complexity, you increase the risk of loss of lives, you decrease the capacity for peace,” Pompeo added.

“We’ve urged everyone to just stay out of this other than to urge that there be a ceasefire and that dialogue be the methodology by which order is restored, peace is restored. At least we hope that’s the case,” he said.

“We’ve certainly communicated that to both the Azerbaijanis and Armenian leaders, and to the Turks as well,” Pompeo asserted.

Turkey, however, said the three big powers should not have any role in peacemaking.