Sofia and Brussels will work out jointly an action plan on the completion of outstanding reforms for Bulgaria's accession to the EU.

This was one of the key arrangements made Wednesday during a meeting of EC President Jose Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.

The purpose is to secure the necessary progress in the judiciary reform, the fight against organized crime and corruption, Jose Barroso said emerging after the talks.

Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn have come to Sofia a day after releasing the Commission's latest monitoring report in a bid to reassure the Bulgarian government in its correct direction of efforts.

Even though "more" is the most frequently repeated word in both the report and statements on it, Olli Rehn stressed that the outlined targets are "clearly feasible".

"The recommendations made in the report should be perceived as a strong stimulus by the Bulgarian people," the EC chief noted and added that "we all want Bulgaria in the EU on 1 January 2007".

During the Sofia visit, Barroso repeated the decision of the EU's executive arm to review once again - in early October - the situation on the outstanding issues as pointed out by Brussels in its latest monitoring report. He even suggested that the Bulgarian administration might consider shortened summer holidays to make up with the reforms by the autumn.

Lining to the EC official guests, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev assessed the report as "objective and justified". He was assertive that it is now the time for Bulgaria to show off practical implementation of the EU harmonized laws.

Both Rehn and Barroso confirmed the option of separating Sofia and Bucharest en route to the EU is not on the agenda saying each country's achievements would be assessed on its own merits.

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