`Concepts envisaging changes in the army structure are being drafted, but closure of the General Staff is not planned,` Defense Minister Nikolay Svinarov told journalists. A possible reduction of the General Staff leadership is being considered. `NATO requires reduction of the army to below 45,000,` Svinarov said. The peacetime army strength will be set in the military doctrine at 45,000, and the wartime strength will be about 100,000. A commission is drafting amendments to the Defence and Armed Forces Act. These amendments will reflect changes in the national security concept and the military doctrine. The implementation parameters of Plan 2004 for reform of the Bulgarian army are among the Defense Ministry`s priorities. About 20,000 officers and soldiers - about 6,000 or 7,000 a year - must be made redundant by 2004. `Lieutenant General Angel Katsarov, Chief of the Military Information Department, reached retirement age on October 20, but will keep his position for some more time,` Svinarov said. `A programme for using MiG-23s to defend strategic facilities is being prepared,` Svinarov reiterated. `Negotiations on the upgrade of MiG-29s are currently taking place,` the Bulgarian Defense Minister added.

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