Washington - US President Barack Obama urged a peaceful solution to long-running disputes between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey in a telephone call Tuesday with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev.

Obama, who visited Turkey this week before making a surprise stop in Iraq Tuesday afternoon, said the US was committed to "supporting progress" to resolve a long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabah, a region claimed by both countries.

The United States also supports Turkish-Armenian efforts to normalize relations, "which will lead to greater peace and security in the region," Obama told Aliyev.

Obama pushed the same theme Monday in a speech before the Turkish parliament and held a meeting with the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers later in the day.

Azerbaijan has in turn pushed Turkey, a close ally, to make a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabah a key condition for normalizing ties with Armenia.

Obama in the past has labelled as "genocide" the killing of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman troops during the First World War - a historical source of much tension in the region. (dpa)