The lack of time impeded the preparation of the experts' opinions on the HIV infection at the Benghazi hospital, despite that obstacle we managed to get help from world-renowned AIDS specialists, doctor Danail Beshkov, consultant of the Bulgarian medics defense told Tuesday.

His comments came after the Monday hearing of the case in Benghazi. The court set February 9 for the final hearing of the HIV trial against the six Bulgarian medics accused of deliberately infecting some 400 Libyan children with HIV.

The medics' defence sought the cooperation of the prominent AIDS expert academic Vadim Pokrovski, but he has not replied so far. At an earlier stage of the trial Pokrovski offered his assistance.

The defence of the six medics has gathered the opinions of several Italian medics that took care of the Libyan children and reviewed the trial documents. The medics confirmed the thesis of the prominent HIV experts Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi.

The report of the two HIV experts insisted that the infection started at the Al-Fatah hospital in Benghazi as early as 1997, before the Bulgarians took medical jobs there.

Two eminent US professors also endorsed Montaigner and Collizi's opinion on Monday. The two experts have long history in HIV researches.

Earlier in the day Bulgaria's Parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) filed a draft resolution on the HIV trial against the six Bulgarian medics in Libya.

The draft resolution tells the story of the trial and expresses the deep concern over the violation of the human rights of the medics. It also urges the Libyan authorities to speed up the trial.

Also on Tuesday BBC reported that the six Bulgarian medics might be released as soon as next month. "Hopes are high that the medics may be released as early as next month, after Libya's attempts to end its isolation," the BBC story reads.