Bulgaria's annual national program, part of the individual plan for NATO membership, was presented in Brussels on Monday. A section of the program was on the updated Plan 2004 for the reform of the Bulgarian army.

The Bulgarian delegation to Brussels included three deputy ministers - Petko Draganov of Foreign Affairs, Radi Naydenov of Defence and Sofia Kassidova of the Economy Ministry. The high interest of the 19 NATO-member states, according to experts, was a sign of the alliance's serious attitude to Bulgaria's membership bid, BTA reported.

Naydenov and Kassidova, answering the question whether Bulgaria could finance the reform in its army, said that in the 2002 budget, a relatively high 2.8 per cent of the GDP was allocated for restructuring the army. They added that contingency funds were set aside so that the reform can be carried out even under unexpected critical circumstances.

Meanwhile, at a press conference in Sofia on Monday, Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov said that under Plan 2004 the current structure of the army will be eliminated, and the staff will be reduced to 45,000, or less than a NATO corps of 50,000. Some 15,000 service men will be discharged next year, he said.

A concerted effort will be made for the social rehabilitation of redundant military personnel, he added, explaining that in addition to severance pay they would be offered jobs in the customs, the police force and the border police.

As part of Plan 2004, Bulgarian military forces will have twice as many combat-ready units as they do now, and division command will be introduced. According to Svinarov, the smaller the Bulgarian Army becomes, the stronger it will be.

With the presentation of its national annual program, Bulgaria entered the third stage in its individual plan for NATO membership. After the Alliance evaluates the results of the individual plan implementation, it will decide which countries will be invited to join at the Prague summit next year.