After he was spotted dining with Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Vassilev, and eagerly heralded by some newspapers as a future deputy customs chief, Brit Maurice Campbell was finally introduced to the media on Tuesday.

He has been named as one of the foreigners that will advise the new Customs Agency director. According to Finance Minister Milen Velchev, the government is finding a legal way to appoint Campbell as an adviser.

Bulgarian law requires state officials to be Bulgarian citizens so Campbell cannot be directly appointed as a Customs employee. If he does become an adviser to customs director Emil Dimitrov, the Finance Ministry will face another problem - how to pay him. Velchev suggested that EU and international financial institutions' funds for improving the customs administration could be the solution.

Campbell is a British Customs and Excise officer. From 1999 until March 2001 he was an advisor on customs matters to the Interior Ministry of Bulgaria. During that period he worked as an EU-funded consultant and was not employed directly by the Bulgarian administration.

Since the new Bulgarian government came to power, Great Britain has been providing temporary advisers for government administration areas. Campbell will advise as part of a wide-ranging technical assistance program.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Campbell said that the British government feels very gratified by the opportunity to help Bulgaria improve its customs administration operation. "The help for customs is part of the British government's overall assistance program which looks for areas where we could be helpful to the Bulgarian government," said Campbell.

Without being specific, Campbell said there are steps that the Bulgarian authorities must take in order to fight corruption successfully in the customs administration. Reducing opportunities for corruption is the best way to deal with this "problem of all customs administrations in the world."