France and Armenia have signed deals on tourism, research cooperation, and the creation of a French university in Armenia.



The agreements were signed in Paris on March 8 as French President Francois Hollande hosted an official state visit by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian.



Hollande said he and Sarkisian on March 8 also discussed efforts to try to resolve the long-running conflict over Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.



Hollande said "we want to work and find solutions" to avoid a repeat of recent violence.



Last week, fighting killed five Azerbaijani soldiers and one ethnic Armenian separatist fighter from the breakaway region.



Azerbaijan and Armenia have been at loggerheads for decades over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region inhabited almost entirely by ethnic Armenians but which is located within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP