BAKU, Azerbaijan (Reuters) -- These are some of the key facts about Azerbaijan, which holds a first-round presidential election on Sunday:

POPULATION -- Estimated at 7.6 million as of 1997 by the State Statistics Committee.

GEOGRAPHY -- Located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, bordered by Iran on the south, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest and Armenia to the west. The Azeri exclave of Nakhchivan is cut off from the rest of the country, between Turkey, Iran, and Armenia.

The country's 86,600 square kilometers (33,440 square miles) of territory has a wide range of climatic zones, from arid desert to subtropical coastal and alpine mountain areas.

GOVERNMENT -- The president is elected for five years. The last election, in October 1993, was won by Haydar Aliyev with 98.6 percent of the vote.

The parliament (Melli Mejlis) is made up of 125 members and is elected every five years. The next election is due in 2000. Twenty-five seats are chosen by party lists and 100 from single-mandate constituencies.

ECONOMY -- Oil production and agriculture are the mainstays. Crude oil production was nine million tons (66 million barrels) in 1997. Natural gas production was 5.963 billion cubic meters. Cotton is the second leading export earner.

The national currency is the manat, whose exchange rate stood at about 3,860 to the U.S. dollar as of October, 1998.

Annual inflation was 4 percent in 1997. Per capita gross domestic product is estimated at about $600. International investment was more than $1 billion in 1997, mostly in the oil sector.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- While Azerbaijan was still under Soviet rule in 1988, ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan's western district of Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from the central government and declared their intention to join Armenia.

Fighting between Azeris and Armenians killed at least 35,000 people before a 1994 cease-fire was declared. The central government lost control not only of Karabakh but also several districts outside it which ethnic Armenian forces took as a buffer zone and bargaining chip.

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