An office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is to be opened in Bulgaria.

For the time being, however, the agency will only send one agent to be based in the country.

Chief secretary of the Interior Ministry Boiko Borissov broke the news on Sunday on his return from a visit to New York and Washington.

"We agreed that they would have an agent based in Bulgaria so we could always be in touch," he said. The future FBI bureau in Bulgaria will be similar to the one in Athens, Greece.

Borissov's transatlantic visit was at the invitation of US federal government agencies.

He said these agencies had a high opinion of the Bulgarian special services, and would help Bulgaria "in every possible way" to join NATO.

Borissov said the US will help Bulgaria to become a NATO member, but Bulgaria must also do its job.

In Washington, he had meetings at the US Secret Service. He discussed with his US colleagues the recently uncovered printing house near Varna, which forged banknotes.

"I had been left with the impression that we eliminated it at its very start," Borissov said and added that the US services had had it under surveillance since 1995.

Borissov said that the printing house made Bulgaria the world's second biggest source of counterfeit banknotes, which were also of the best quality in the world.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has highly appreciated Bulgaria's efforts to combat drug trafficking.

"Bulgaria has the highest approval rating in the fight against illicit drugs now," Borissov said.

Michael Vigil of the DEA said in an interview with bTV that cooperation between the US and Bulgaria was exceptional. He said he was impressed by the role the Bulgarian Government has started playing in combating drug trafficking.

Vigil said Bulgaria had managed to gather a great amount of information about the criminal organisations in the region.

The US-Bulgarian cooperation extends to training as well. Two former agents of the US special police services are currently in Sofia to conduct training in tactical firearms combat. The instructors are members of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors.

About 45 Bulgarian officers of different national services with the Interior Ministry were taking part in the four-day training.