US Ambassador to Bulgaria John Beyrle believed it is difficult to develop high-level relations with Libya while five Bulgarian medics are on a death row in Tripoli.

Emerging after a meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev on Friday, the US diplomat was adamant the nurses must be set free and come home as soon as possible.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor six were accused of infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi in the 1990s but the medics deny the charges. A number of expert studies have suggested the infection was present in the hospital before their arrival and its real cause was poor hygiene.

The Libya trial has received huge attention worldwide, with countries and international human rights and professional organisations offering help to express their solidarity.

A day earlier, during a special EU-celebratory session of Parliament in Sofia, President Georgi Parvanov said that Sofia "counted on the solidarity of its European partners" to reach "a justified solution in the case of our nurses in Libya".

But top diplomats in Sofia have been reluctant to impose economic measures on Libya, believing the international community support for the AIDS trial is only political. Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin told state radio BNR it is unlikely that the European Union churn the Jamahiriya and act firmly on behalf of the five medics.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death on December 19, 2006 in a high-profile AIDS epidemics trial in Libya. The verdict sparked an international outcry with both the US and the EU calling for the release of the nurses.

In Strasbourg, Bulgarian liberal MEPs have come up with a draft resolution calling for a special European Parliament rapporteur for the case of the six medics sentenced to death in Libya. They insisted also for a revision of EU policy towards Tripoli should there be further negative developments.

The motion, which is likely to be adopted along with the German presidency and commission's statement on the latest development in the Libya case, recalls that the prisoners have been tortured and their legal rights have been violated.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on 22 and 23 January are also planning to discuss the issue, according to a preliminary agenda that will be firmed up next week.