While MPs are on a month-long summer break until September 5, Cabinet members are hard at work. Foreign Minister Solomon Passi is among the most active government workers.

Passi initiated new and improved Bulgarian-Arab relations at a meeting with Arab ambassadors to Bulgaria on Tuesday. "Relations between Bulgaria and the Arab world used to be much better in the past than they are now," he said. Still he found that there was great potential for their development.

This was the third meeting of its kind. Last week he met with ambassadors of NATO member countries, and with ambassadors of European Union member countries. "The Moroccan ambassador and I are cousins, as we come from the same Moroccan town - Fes," Passi said.

"That is not true we are all cousins here," said the Moroccan ambassador Abdeslam Alem.

The most senior of the Arab diplomats, Abdeslam Alem, said the meeting discussed Bulgarian-Arab relations as a whole and reviewed relations between Bulgaria and each country. He said he was pleased with Bulgaria's interest in the Arab world. Bulgaria showed the political will to develop and strengthen co-operation and bilateral relations, the Moroccan Ambassador added.

The Foreign Minister said that the diplomats discussed issues of mutual interest. The case of the six Bulgarian medics held in Libya on charges of intentionally infecting 393 children with the HIV virus was not discussed, said Libyan ambassador Farage Gibril.

Last Thursday Justice Minister Anton Stankov repeated his earlier statement that he was not optimistic about the outcome of the trial against the six Bulgarian medics in Libya because the charges raised against them were very grave. He said that the interdepartmental committee on the trial in Libya was certain that the Bulgarians never conspired against the Libyan state.

He met with the interdepartmental commission last Wednesday, which will now meet on a weekly basis until the next court sitting scheduled for September 22. The discussions will centre on Bulgaria's course of action after this date, such as the possibility of appealing against the sentence.

Passi also established a slightly different attitude towards Macedonia. He said last Friday that Bulgaria would scale down the mediation it had previously carried out in the Macedonian conflict. Passi, together with Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov, and Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov, were invited by President Petar Stoyanov to hear his position on the situation and to receive the information he had at his disposal. Stoyanov also hoped that the discussion would lay the foundations of a united foreign policy.

"Bulgaria's position on the Macedonian crisis will not change, except in its outward expression - it will be calmer, more moderate, and without any excessive drama," Passi said. Bulgaria would keep its active role and co-operation with NATO, EU, and international institutions, but it could not act as a mediator in a conflict which it had not been invited to mediate, said Passi.

Stoyanov said before the meeting that it was not prompted by any particular developments that were cause for public concern. Most diplomatic and political circles said that the negotiation process in Macedonia seemed to be entering a positive phase, he said, adding that this was the first discussion of Macedonia after the new cabinet had been formed.

The foreign minister said he supported the president's opinion that the international community should listen more closely to the position of the Macedonian president.