Ilham Aliyev visited France on 22-23 January on his first official state visit as president of Azerbaijan. Aliyev met in Paris on 23 January with French President Jacques Chirac to discuss bilateral relations and the prospects for resolving the Karabakh conflict, and also with Senate Chairman Francois Poncelet and Defense Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie. Aliyev expressed regret that the OSCE Minsk Group, of which France is one of the three co-chairs, has not succeeded in mediating a solution to the Karabakh conflict. He urged the international community to abandon what he termed its policy of double standards and to increase its efforts toward finding an acceptable solution. Aliyev also called for an increase in French investment in Azerbaijan; France is Azerbaijan\'s third-most-important trading partner. (ITAR-TASS)