The truth about the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II should be looked for among the veterans of the Bulgarian special services and the allies of the country's communist leader Todor Zhivkov, according to a former high-ranking officer from the Russian secret service KGB.

Talking in an interview for New Europe radio, Oleg Gordievski, who worked in London at the time of the assassination attempt, said the military intelligence services of Bulgaria and the former Soviet Union were involved in the shooting that nearly killed John Paul II.

"In my opinion, the plan worked like that - Soviet Union autocrat Leonid Brezhnev, along with two of his closest pals - the Defence Minister and KGB head, together with the international department of the Central Committee, hatched the plot, which was easily adopted by the Bulgarian dictator."

Asked why he believed in the Bulgarian connection, Oleg Gordievski pointed out the links of Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca with Bulgaria and the presence of Bulgarian spies at the scene of crime.

Agca is either a fool or pretends to be one, Gordievski said, adding that nothing had yet proved Turkish forces were behind the assassination attempt.

The pontiff himself dismissed the speculation that Bulgaria was behind a 1981 attempt on his life during his visit to Bulgaria May 2002, saying he had never believed that the Turkish gunman who shot him on May 13, 1981 in St Peter's Square was working for the Bulgarian secret services.

Mehmet Ali Agca, who was jailed for life for the shooting, claimed he was commissioned by Bulgaria on the orders of Soviet KGB.

Agca later recanted but suspicions continued, despite the fact that an Italian court acquitted three Bulgarians and three other Turks in the alleged conspiracy for lack of evidence.

An Italian Parliamentary commission decided last week to reopen the dossier on the 1981 attempt on John Paul II's life, in the wake of revelations in the Pope's new book "Memory and Identity".

In his book the Pope describes at length the assassination attempt of 1981 when Mehmet Ali Agca shot and nearly killed him in St Peter's Square. Of Agca, the Pope writes the assassination attempt was "not his initiative, someone else masterminded it and someone else commissioned it."

The investigation of Mehmet Ali Agca's attack on the Pope was entrusted to Italian authorities.

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