Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the International Organization of the Francophone Secretary General and former UN Secretary General, was one of the distinguished guests who visited Bulgaria this week at the invitation of President Petar Stoyanov.

He arrived on Monday and during his three-day visit Boutros-Ghali met with Stoyanov, Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg and Foreign Minister Solomon Passi.

Boutros-Ghali expressed the support of the international Francophone organization for Bulgaria's bid to become a non-permanent UN Security Council member. He said that he was very optimistic about the forthcoming vote on Bulgaria's bid and invited Stoyanov to the Francophone summit, which will be held in September during the 56th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Stoyanov said that he supported Boutros-Ghali's bid to be elected for a second term. Passi also supported Boutros-Ghali on behalf of the Bulgarian government. "I expressed hope that Bulgaria can rely on Francophone solidarity to realize its foreign policy priorities," said Passi after the meeting on Monday.

In a lecture to Bulgaria's Atlantic Club on Monday, Boutros-Ghali outlined the prospects of developing the Francophone movement and drew attention to its three dimensions - cultural, political and economic. Asked whether his organization will step into the Macedonian conflict, Boutros-Ghali stated that it would only interfere with a conflict if a country requested it to and if there were no other intermediaries in that conflict. He condemned NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. "I think that the strikes of NATO against Yugoslavia were illegal because they did not have the approval of the UN Security Council," he said.

During his lecture Boutros-Ghali denied any competition between French and other languages. "I do not think that the role of this organization is to wage a war on the English language. We are for the diversity of languages and cultures."

He pointed out that every new member of his organization gave a new dimension to the community and offered new opportunities for co-operation. Bulgaria has been a full member of the Francophone organization since 1993.