Sarkozy to visit Azerbaijan, Georgia on Friday.

BAKU/TBILISI, October 7 (Itar-Tass) -- French President Nicolas
Sarkozy will continue his tour of the South Caucasus and will visit
Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.
Sarkozy will arrive in Azerbaijan from Armenia where he negotiated a
settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Along with Russia and the United
States, France co-chairs the OSCE Minsk Group which is working to mediate
a resolution of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Sarkozy will stay only several hours in Baku to meet President Ilham
Aliyev.
Ahead of the visit Sarkozy called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to "take
the risk of peace" and settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
In Georgia, Sarkozy who helped mediate a ceasefire in the five-day war
with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia in 2008 will meet President
Mikhail Saakashvili and jointly address residents of Tbilisi in Freedom
Square.
The Georgian foreign ministry described Sarkozy as "a very good friend
and well-wisher of Georgia" and said the visit will "promote bilateral
relations and have a major significance for the whole region."
Saakashvili's spokeswoman Manana Mandzhgaladze said the visit will
signal a "breakthrough in Georgian relations with France and the European
Union" and that Sarkozy would "express French and EU support to Georgia."