Bulgaria hasn't reacted yet to the US request Iraqi diplomats to be expelled from the country, Lyubomir Todorov, deputy foreign minister, said Friday.

Bulgaria is one of the countries, which officially declared they officially sided with the United States on Iraq. Yahya Mahdi is Iraq's envoy to Bulgaria. He has been Iraq's charge d'affaires in Sofia since August last year. He has worked for 28 years in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry with diplomatic positions in the United Arab Emirates, Iran, the United Nations, Morocco.

Before his arrival in Bulgaria, he worked in the Iraqi foreign ministry in Baghdad.

The Bush administration has asked governments around the world to expel all Iraqi ambassadors, temporarily to suspend services at Iraqi embassies and freeze all Iraqi assets in their countries, CNN reported.

The request went out in a diplomatic cable to all diplomatic posts, asking them to take up the issue with their host governments, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

France, Russia and Germany defied the United States by refusing to expel Iraqi diplomats.

Other countries rejecting the US request include Finland, the Netherlands, and Malaysia.