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Bulgaria eyes quick Libya deal

  • Story Highlights
  • EC official, France's first lady in Libya to seek release of medics
  • EU does not want to pay compensation that might suggest medics' guilt
  • Libya commuted their death sentences after millions paid to families
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TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters) -- Bulgaria said it was hopeful of an agreement with Libyan authorities on Monday that would pave the way for the release of six foreign medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.

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Rossen Markov wears a T-shirt that reads "Justice for our medics in Libya" in Bulgarian and English.

Diplomats in Tripoli said Libya had asked for normalized ties with the European Union in the talks and was holding out for more foreign funds to treat the children. The EU does not want to pay compensation that might suggest an admission the medics are guilty.

Prospects for the release of the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor appeared to rise after France's first lady and a top European Commission official flew to Libya seeking to end a dispute holding back Tripoli's ties with the West.

"We are at the stage now where the decision is purely political," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin told reporters arriving for a meeting in Brussels.

"I hope there will be enough will from the Libyans' side today in order to finalize talks. ... If they show this will, then the transfer can be done very quickly," he added.

The European Union's executive said in a statement late on Sunday that EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife Cecilia traveled to the North African state on Sunday.

"The European Commission hopes that this situation, which is so painful and has lasted so long, can be resolved in a humane spirit," the statement said. It gave no further details.

An EU official would only say that the two women were in Tripoli talking to the Libyan authorities on Monday, and declined to comment on media reports that the nurses would be flown out to Sofia on Monday aboard a French presidential plane.

Libya's Higher Judicial Council last week commuted death sentences on the six, accused of deliberately infecting 460 children at Benghazi hospital, to life imprisonment.

That opened the way for them to return to their home country under a 1984 prisoner exchange agreement. Once in Bulgaria, they could be pardoned by the Balkan state's president, Georgi Parvanov.

Last Friday, the EU held out the prospect of a quick boost to relations with Libya if the fate of the six jailed medics is resolved in a satisfactory way.

A Libyan diplomatic source said on Monday Libya had requested a complete normalization of its ties with EU states, without giving further details.

But a French diplomat familiar with the discussions said the main obstacle was still money, with the Libyans holding out for more foreign cash.

Other officials in Tripoli said the Libyans were asking the EU to contribute more money to modernize a health center in Benghazi where the infected children can be treated and help pay for their treatment abroad if necessary.

Bulgaria and its allies in the 27-member bloc say the nurses are innocent but have provided long-term medical assistance to victims and aid for the Benghazi hospital.

The EU is also helping Libyan authorities design a national AIDS program.

Libyan officials have signaled that they want the agreement firmed up, with specific details included as to how the EU will fulfil its commitments in practice.

Families of the HIV victims received payments of hundreds of millions of dollars last week from an international fund set up by the Gaddafi Foundation.

In Bulgaria, where a big poster saying "We are waiting for you" was placed at the Sofia airport's arrival hall, government officials rejected French media reports that the nurses could be flown back to the Balkan country as early as Monday.

"It is not true. The rumor is wrong. It is not clear when the nurses will come back," Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev told Reuters. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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