Presidents of Bulgaria and Latvia held talks on the European Union enlargement process, as Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga arrived Thursday on a three-day official visit to Sofia at the invitation of Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov.

The two shared thoughts on the political and economic situation in different parts of Europe.

Vike-Freiberga's arrival is expected to draw the interest of Bulgarian public and journalists, since the two countries share much common history - both have now stepped away from their Soviet-Union dominated past (in 1940 Latvia was absorbed into the Soviet Union and re-emerged in 1991 as an independent state) and are set for joining the EU. At a Copenhagen summit in 2002, the Baltic state was formally invited to join the EU in 2004, and Latvians voted overwhelmingly in favour of EU membership in a referendum in September 2003.

Bulgaria hopes the close pre-accession negotiations in 2004, and join the Union 2007.

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