TERTER, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan's defense ministry says it has agreed on a cease-fire separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region starting noon local time Tuesday.

The ministry said in a statement that the operations of Azerbaijani and Karabakh troops "have been stopped."

An Associated Press reporter in the front-line area of Azerbaijan heard shelling Tuesday morning but no sound of fighting in the early afternoon.

Authorities in the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh confirmed the cease-fire deal to the AP.