Sofia  - Workers at the Kremikovtzi steel mill in Bulgaria launched a further protest Monday, demanding backlogged salaries and a programme to save the company from liquidation.

Apart from salaries unpaid since July, labour unions want the state, which holds a 25-per cent stake in the bankrupt mill and holds most of its liabilities, to step in and save it from liquidation.

The majority-71-per-cent stake belongs to Pramod Mittal, the brother of the Indian-born steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

Sofia - Some 3,000 Bulgarian farmers on Thursday blocked several key highways in protest against the government's agricultural policy, the national radio said.

Grain producers, joining the months-long protest of dairy farmers, are demanding subsidies which they claim the state owes them and are demanding more money than what is planned in the 2009 draft budget.

They also are demanding the resignation of Agriculture Minister Valeriy Cvetanov, saying he did not meet promises he made.

Sofia - Bulgaria would consider a pullout of its troops from the international military contingent in Iraq, Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin was quoted as saying Thursday.

Sofia - Bulgaria would consider a pullout of its troops from the international military contingent in Iraq, Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin was quoted as saying Thursday.

"We are analyzing our presence (in Iraq), but believe that our mission is largely accomplished," Kalfin told reporters after a ministerial meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

Sofia  - Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on Wednesday expressed confidence the United States would remain the "leader in building and strengthening of a peaceful and prosperous world" under Barack Obama's presidency.

"I and the Bulgarian nation congratulate your election as president of the US and wish you success in the highly responsible mission of heading a great country ... a major player in the world's arena," Parvanov said in a statement.

Sofia - The Bulgarian government on Thursday invited the world's largest steel concern, Arcelormittal, to take over the troubled Kremikowtzi mill.

"It is one of the world's best-known enterprises," Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said, announcing the decision to call in the company of the India-born billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.

Lakshmi's younger brother, Pramod, already owns the majority stake

in the debt-ridden Kremikovtzi mill, near the capital Sofia, which went bankrupt in August.

Dimitrov said however that the government is negotiating the sale of its 25-per cent stake in Kremikovtzi with "other domestic and foreign candidates."