The talks with the Bulgarian striking teachers continue, but the government has already reached the limit of its possibilities, the country's Education Minister Daniel Valchev said Wednesday.

The dialogue will not stop, but now the question is what the teachers and the cabinet will negotiate on, as the state budget for 2008 was introduced to the parliament in the afternoon, Minister Valchev added.

The government reached an agreement with the trade unions on Friday on the teacher's wage hike and the agreed figures were included in the draft state budget.

"When you lead a group of people, you have to know where you are going to take them to and to have realistic goals. Everything else is mere irresponsibility," Valchev said and added that when there are only unrealistic expectations, the government has nothing else to do but to push everything to the limits of the ultimate possibilities.

Two thirds of Bulgaria's teachers resumed their strike on Tuesday and the rest went back to work, while the unions' demands for new talks were shut down by the government, which asked for more time to think over its next offer.

Education minister Daniel Valchev declined to meet with the union leaders on Tuesday, saying the cabinet was still open to talks, but first needed to re-assess its own position.

He also admonished the trade unions for not putting in enough effort to find a compromise solution to the crisis.

The unions and the cabinet agreed last week to raise the salaries of all employees in the education by BGN 80 starting November 1, which would raise the average teacher's wage by 22,5% to BGN 524, and for non-teaching staff to BGN 283.

The deal also included a 24% wage hike for both teaching and non-teaching staff on July 1, 2008, for a cumulative 48%, and the allocation of 4,22% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to education in next year's budget.

But after they were given the weekend to mull over the proposal, the teachers rejected it on Monday, refusing to budge from their demands - a cumulative 78% wage hike by July, as well as 5% of GDP allocated for education next year.

Although a full third of the country's teaching staffs returned to work on Tuesday, according to the strike committee's data, the rest remain resolute in demanding the cabinet improves its offer.

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