Abstract Benzocondensed six-membered heterocyclic rings containing two heteroatoms have been synthesized by a generally applicable method starting from disubstituted benzene compounds and methyl 4-chlorobutynoate (1) or methyl 4-bromobutenoate (2). The reactions with 1 yield a mixture of endo and exo (E or Z) isomers. The 13 C nmr spectroscopy was used to assign the structure of the synthesized compounds.