EU foreign ministers expressed their concerns over the fate of five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya, while deciding to remove the arms sanctions against the North African country.

During Monday's meeting in Luxembourg, the top diplomats of 25 EU member countries debated - and approved - a recommendation, put forward on September 22 by EU ambassadors, to lift economic and other sanctions imposed on Tripoli and bring it in line with a UN decision adopted last year.

The complicating matter was friction over a Libyan court ruling that found six foreign medics, including five Bulgarians, guilty last May of infecting more than 400 children with the AIDS virus.

Human rights groups have alleged Libya concocted the experiment story to hide unsafe practices in its hospitals and clinics.

"We are very concerned about the situation of the Bulgarian citizens," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on arrival at the meeting. He said the EU planned "to send a clear message to the Libyan authorities" that the EU expects the court ruling to be reversed.

"We have to respond, we have to react," added Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz.

EU-hopeful Bulgaria has close ties with the wealthy Union and nurtures hopes that the Bulgarian medics case would find a positive outcome with support and diplomatic pressure on Libya by the European Union.

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