On Monday the speaker of the Bulgarian National Assembly Ognian Gerdjikov met the six Bulgarian medics charged with infecting 393 Libyan children with HIV. Gerdjikov also had a brief meeting with Libya's President colonel Muammar Ghaddafi.

"There are things connected with senior diplomacy and superior interests in relations between Libya and Bulgaria that are too delicate to be discussed at the moment, but will be developed in a diplomatic way," said Gerdjikov upon his return to Bulgaria. He added that it is hard to understand how complicated the situation is in Libya.

Gerdjikov did not discuss the issue of the medics with Ghaddafi during their two-minute meeting on Sunday. Ghaddafi only asked about Bulgaria's development and President Petar Stoyanov. On the same day the National Assembly speaker met Ghaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, who is chairman of the Gaddafi foundation, responsible for solving delicate state issues. Al-Islam expressed his desire to personally observe the medics' trial.

"I am encouraged by the talks. I hope that there will be a favourable outcome after all," said Gerdjikov. He warned that Bulgarians should not have overly optimistic expectations.

Gerdjikov met the Bulgarian medics outside the prison, in the prosecution building. The five nurses wanted to be separated from the other female prisoners and also to see a dentist. The deputy chairman of the Libyan Parliament, whom Gerdjikov also met, promised that he would co-operate with these demands. The medics said that the attitude towards them had improved and they now have access to radio and television. Gerdjikov said that the medics looked good considering the condition they were in. The National Assembly press office announced that he was going to meet the medics' relatives on Wednesday. "Bulgaria did well at such a delicate moment, when it is hard to find the right approach," said Gerdjikov. The sixteenth court session of the trial will be held on September 22 when the verdicts are to be announced. "A case can always be postponed. As a jurist I know this well," said Gerdjikov. The six medics were detained on February 9, 1999 on charges of plotting against the Jamahirriya.

Gerdjikov was invited on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary from the revolution on September 1, 1969, when king Mohammad al-Sanousi, then on vacation in Ankara, Turkey, was overthrown in a bloodless revolution by Gaddafi.

The Parliament speaker was accompanied by the deputy minister of foreign affairs Ivan Petkov, and Evgenia Zhivkova, an MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party and a member of the parliamentary group for friendship with Libya. The delegation left urgently on August 30. The invitation was addressed personally to Gerdjikov, according to the Parliament's press office.