One member of Simeon Saxe-Coburg's Cabinet may have been an agent of the former secret services.

Inconclusive evidence has been found concerning one of the government ministers. It suggested that the person may have been affiliated to the former Committee for State Security. As the evidence was inconclusive, the name of the person in question would not be revealed, said Metodi Andreev, chair of the Commission for Disclosure of Records and Ascertainment of Involvement with the Former State Security and the Intelligence Agency of the General Staff (the Files Commission) last Wednesday.

The Files Commission was allowed access to Interior Ministry archives on Wednesday, and established that the documents it had obtained from the card index of the Interior Ministry were authentic, said Andreev. Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov announced that he now considered the matter closed.

Earlier, Petkanov had refused to let the Commission check documents concerning the suspected minister. The card-index is one way of identifying those connected with the former security services but is not considered sufficient evidence to prove that people were agents, thus the Interior Ministry was not obliged to allow the Files Commission access to the archives, he said.

On Sunday Petkanov said on the National Radio that the Commission was appropriating rights that were beyond the Law for Access to Former State Security Documents. For that reason he said he was considering altogether refusing the Commission access to the archive.

Files Commission members met with Petkanov on Wednesday. They analyzed the performance of the Commission so far and its future work with the Interior Ministry. They agreed that access to the former secret police files will be provided in full compliance with existing legislation and implemented regulations.

The Commission recently asked the Interior Ministry to allow it access to the former State Security records on 23 key issues, including the "Macedonian issue," "State Security and Minorities," "State Security and Regeneration process," which refers to the communist repression of Bulgarian Muslims, and "Interference by State Security in the work of the intelligentsia and its organizations."

The Commission's request for access to these records topped the agenda of Wednesday's meeting. According to Petkanov, such access could only be granted after the rules and precise conditions were formulated. In 1994 Parliament decided that the archive no longer constituted state security, but that the rules and conditions for access to the archive were not defined, he said. In the past few weeks there were several statements in favour of a moratorium on the work of the secret files commission. So far, there was no such danger, Andreev said.

Brigo Asparuhov, Coalition For Bulgaria MP and former head of the National Intelligence Service, announced on Sunday that he had prepared a draft bill for a moratorium of the commission activities until the legislation was changed. On Monday Andreev announced that Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, had requested a check of the files of the five deputy ministers and of the three regional governors that the MRF had proposed. No names would be publicly revealed.