UNITED NATIONS, September 29. /TASS/. The UN Security Council is planning to convene on Tuesday for urgent closed-door consultations over the recent escalation between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a source in the organization told TASS Monday.

"The discussion is likely to be held on Tuesday as closed-door consultations," the source noted.

According to TASS, a number of European states initiated the meeting. The consultation format implies that only diplomats of the 15 Security Council member states are in attendance without the parties to the conflict.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on September 27, when Azerbaijan said its positions had come under extensive fire from Armenia. Armenia, in turn, said the Azerbaijani army had staged an offensive in the direction of Nagorno-Karabakh. It said a number of settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh, including its administrative center Stepanakert, had come under shelling by Azerbaijan. Both sides report casualties, including among civilians. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have imposed martial law.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.