Baku, April 3 (IANS): Azerbaijan on Sunday unilaterally ordered ceasefire in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani defence ministry said.

"In response to persistent addresses from international organisations and as a result of the country's peace policies, Azerbaijan's armed forces unilaterally suspended the counter-attacks and response measures against the enemy in the occupied territories," Xinhua quoted a defence ministry statement as saying.

If the Armenian side continues "the provocative actions and fire on settlements and on positions of the Azerbaijani army, the forces will continue attack operations to liberate the territories", the statement said.

On Saturday, the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defence authorities of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan are in conflict since the late 1980s because of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the breakup of the Soviet Union but was mainly populated by Armenians.