More than 2000 workers of Bulgaria's largest steel-maker Kremikovtzi blocked part of the downtown of the capital Sofia on Tuesday continuing their protests over the future of the troubled plant.

Part of them headed for the Economy Ministry building in yet another protest rally.

It is expected that the Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev will talk to the protesters at a meeting in the afternoon.

The main focus of the workers' protests is the fact that they had not received their August and September salaries by Friday, November 7, as the Ministry of Economy had promised them.

Bulgaria's Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov, who had made a pledge that his Ministry was going to assist the plant with the payment of the delayed salaries, explained this promise could not be delivered upon because of the ruling of the Sofia Appellate Court that the Ministry's syndic in Kremikovtzi had not been appointed in accordance with the legitimate procedure.

The leader of KNSB trade union in Kremikovtzi, Vassil Yanachkov, said state officials promised to take emergency measures over selling the production of the steel mill at market prices, getting money from the fiscal reserve.

"The salaries of the workers for August and September will probably be paid until the end of the week," he explained.

The ruling of the Sofia Appellate Court from Wednesday, November 5 that the syndic Ana Milenkova had been appointed in an illegitimate way left Kremikovtzi's biggest creditor, the Bulgarian state, without a representative in the management of the plant.

Thus, the affairs of the steel mill, which was declared insolvent in September, are now managed by the other syndic Tzvetan Bankov, who was elected on September 26, 2008, by the general meeting of the shareholders of the plant owner Finmetals Group.

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