Under Russian mediation, two Azerbaijanis and four Armenians have returned to their homeland, said the commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces on site, Rustam Muradov, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday.

By mid-December, the two warring states had already exchanged more than 50 prisoners.

The recent fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh began on September 27 and lasted until November 9.

Azerbaijan reclaimed large parts of the territory it had lost in the early 1990s.

In total, more than 4,700 people died on both sides, most of them soldiers.

Meanwhile, there was confusion over an alleged incident on Sunday in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry, Armenian attackers killed one enemy soldier and injured another.

Armenian soldiers are also said to have been killed.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Defence Ministry rejected this as a "propaganda provocation".

"Not a single shot was fired from the Armenian side," a statement said.

There was initially contradicting information about the individuals allegedly killed.

The ceasefire had already been broken more than two weeks ago, when several people were injured in a shooting incident at a military post in Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the time, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of the renewed fighting.

Australian Associated Press