Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has claimed that Bulgarian authorities have prevented terror acts without giving publicity to the cases.

In a Friday interview for the morning broadcast of private TV station bTV, Tsvetanov stated that Bulgaria was implementing counter-terrorism measures round the clock but the Burgas bus bombing had indicated certain omissions.

The Interior Minister explained that Bulgaria had responded very adequately to early warnings about terror acts in the past few years but refused to cite concrete examples.

Tsvetanov explained that there had been no information pointing to the July 18 Burgas bus bombing, which was why the services had failed to prevent it.

He argued that Bulgaria applied a range of counter-terrorism measures targeted for each tourist season.

The Interior Minister said that Bulgarian services had prevented around 15 potential terror attacks since the beginning of the government's term in office and the suspects had been sent to their home countries.

"There is no country in the world which assumes that it is immune to terrorism," he noted, citing the September 11 attacks and the the London and Madrid bombings.

Tsvetanov suggested that a number of sectors in the sphere of security were underfunded, which obstructed the achievement of high standards.

"We know about all crime groups in the country," he stated, commenting on the 12 crime rings mentioned in the latest EC report on Bulgaria under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.

He added that the major portion of the said crime groups had been placed under operative control and the Bulgarian authorities were cooperating with the EU on the other cases.

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