BRUSSELS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Armenia and Azerbaijan are inching closer to a solution over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh but details could prove more difficult than principles, the Armenian foreign minister said on Monday.

Vardan Oskanyan told Reuters at a ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation Europe, which has been mediating in the dispite, that the most recent meeting of presidents of the two countries in Minsk "was not bad".

"If Azerbaijan eventually accepts Karabakhs' right for self-determination, so that they can determine their status, their future and also make their own security arrangements, I indeed see a possibility for moving forward," he said.

OSCE chairman, Belgian Foreign Minister Karen De Gucht, said a solution was in sight for Nagorno-Karabakh in the next year.

"We have made really substantial progress, if not a breakthrough," he told a news briefing. "It's obvious that the trust between the two countries has grown considerably."

The Nagorno-Karabakh region is officially part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by Armenian separatists since armed conflict erupted in the 1990s which killed an estimated 35,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

Nagorno-Karabakh is one of several "frozen conflicts" left over from the Cold War in which the OSCE has been mediating.

A major pipeline linking Caspian Sea oil fields to world markets passes near the conflict zone and the Group of Eight leading industrial countries said this year it wanted to set up a timetable to work towards a concrete peace in the region.

Oskanyan declined to detail recent talks and added: "We've got to be very careful about appearing too optimistic."

He said there had been progress on principles. "That's where the positions are inching closer, but we are not there yet.

"Once we conclude the document, we have to go into a second layer where we may face fresh problems because discussing details sometimes could prove more problematic than the principles."

The minister said the toughest issue to resolve would be that of self-determination for Nagorno-Karabakh: "Everything else is secondary," he said.

"We have the core problem, we have the consequences. The debate and disagreement for the past many years has been which comes first. You eliminate the consequences before you go to the core problem or you address the core and automatically the
consequences will be eliminated.

"We think the latter is the appropriate approach and what we are discussing today is indeed the latter," Oskanyan said.

By David Brunnstrom
Reuters News