A month after the Bulgarian medics and the Palestinian doctor, wrongly accused of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, returned home, they demanded a joint European plan for their protection.

The medics voiced their demand at a meeting with the ambassadors of the European Union member states to Bulgaria on Friday.

The meeting took place at the Embassy of Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency, and comes at the demand of the medics.

"We asked for a continuing assistance, which will help us re-integrate faster into society," Doctor Zdravko Georgiev said after the meeting.

The medics demanded that they should get help just as the HIV-infected Libyan children received help in the face of treatment ion European hospitals and money compensations.

The ambassador of Portugal Mario Jesus dos Santos from his part said the medics' needs do not depend on the European Union because they are Bulgarian citizens.

The five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor, who was granted Bulgarian citizenship right before the release, were convicted of intentionally infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV before transferring them to Bulgaria on July 24 to serve their life sentence there.

Libya commuted death sentences against the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to life in prison, following a financial settlement of USD 1 M each for each of more than 400 children infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

The six were pardoned immediately after they touched down in jubilating Bulgaria on July 24.

The medics were flown from Tripoli to Sofia at the end of a three-day trip to Libya by Mr Sarkozy's wife Cecilia and the EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

France's scene-stealing new First Lady threatened to obscure the real significance of the release after she made a spectacular foray into politics with her controversial role in the liberation of the medics.

After two trips to Libya and a long conversation with the man who was once the most roguish of state leaders, the nightmare was over.

Her influence remains ambiguous, except for an explanation by Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, the Libyan leader's son, who called her just "lucky".

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