Bulgaria never sold weapons to Libya, despite having obtained a permit for it, the Minister of Economy and Energy, Traicho Traikov, declared Wednesday.

The Minister spoke during the meeting of the Council of Ministers, in the aftermath of a publication of the British Guardian focusing on weapons deals between Libya and EU Member States and on how much profit the EU has made from armament now used to kill demonstrators in Libya.

According to the investigative report, Bulgaria has sold in 2009 ammunitions and detonators to the Muammar Gaddafi's regime in the amount close to EUR 4 M.

In 2009 Bulgaria had two cabinets – until July, the Three Way Coalition led by Socialist, Sergey Stanishev and then the one of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov. The Guardian report is not specific about which one was involved in the deal.

Traikov said the previous coalition cabinet issued the permit for the weapons export to Libya in the amount of USD 4 M (not EUR), but the deal never materialized.

The Minister further pointed out Bulgaria is currently not banned to export weapons to Libya.

Earlier Wednesday, Bulgaria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, said he never obtained information the cabinet of his ruling, center-right GERB party had sold ammunitions to Libya in 2009.

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