Valeri Tsvetanov, who became Bulgaria's Agriculture and Food Supply Minister in the April 2008 Cabinet reshuffle, was cultivated as an agent by the country's communist-era state security, it emerged on July 24 2008 from information on the website of the commission scrutinising Bulgaria's former secret services.

Tsvetanov, appointed to the tripartite coalition Cabinet from the quota of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), the party led and supported mainly by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent, was recruited in 1981 ad had the codename "Sendov", Bulgarian National Television reported.

Reacting, Tsvetanov said: "I have no reason to feel ashamed of anything I have done in my life. The trust in me at the moment depends fully on my personal competence and role as Agriculture and Food Supply Minister, and the responsibility I have in regard to the policy that I carry out," Bulgarian news agency Focus reported.

Bulgarian news website mediapool.bg said that Tsvetanov had been involved with companies with his predecessor Nihat Kabil.

Also identified as communist-era state security collaborators were Deputy Foreign Minister Radio Popov and former deputy interior minister Goran Yonov.

Popov, also a representative of the MRF, replaced Feim Chaushev earlier this year after it emerged that Chaushev had multiple identities. Some years ago, MRF leader Ahmed Dogan was identified as having been a state security collaborator.

Yonov, a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the majority partner in the tripartite coalition, was a member of state security and underwent KGB training in 1975. After leaving office as deputy interior minister in November 2007, Yonov was appointed by President Georgi Purvanov as Purvanov's secretary for foreign policy and security. Purvanov, who was BSP leader before becoming president in January 2002, had a state security file under the codename "Gotse", it emerged in 2006.