Bulgaria and Croatia have been accepted in for two year waiting room before these European Union member states will be allowed to join Euro as currency.

Sofia - Bulgaria will hold parliamentary elections on July 5, President Georgi Parvanov's cabinet said Tuesday. The poll would be the first since Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007. The new centre-right GERB party, headed by former top policeman and now Sofia mayor Boyko Borisov leads popularity surveys with 30 per cent. GERB was however still not tested in elections.

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's Socialist Party, which leads the ruling coalition, is ranked in second in surveys with a 20-per cent support.

Sofia - Natural gas importing countries in Europe, meeting on Friday in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, called for greater energy "security" in reaction to the Russian gas crisis four months ago.

Energy security does not stop at national borders, nor does it stopat the European Union border, said EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at the start of the two-day summit.

Sofia - Five Bulgarian nurses who had spent eight years in detention and sentenced to death in Libya before being deported in
2007 have demanded compensation from the government in Tripoli over their ordeal.

The women and the Palestinian man who was also among the six medical workers accused of intentionally infecting more than 400 children with the HIV virus have called on the United Nations to intervene to "bring the Libyan state to justice."

Sofia - Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov Wednesday vetoed the new election law, criticized by the opposition as undemocratic because it favours large parties.

With the limited authority as head of state, Parvanov has the right to veto a parliament act. Legislators, however, may return it to him unchanged and force him to enact it.

The new law, pushed through Monday by the ruling Socialist Party (BSP) and its allies, raised the number of votes a party must win in elections to qualify for parliament from 4 to 8 per cent.

Stuttgart  - Former Germany striker Fredi Bobic has been appointed chief executive of Bulgaria club Chernomorets Burgas.

Bobic told German Press Agency dpa Wednesday he wanted to help create a modern club with European ambitions over the next few years.

Bobic, 37, who has been working as a television pundit, joins former Stuttgart team-mate Krasimir Balakov, now Chernomorets coach.