Bulgaria's agriculture would receive only 750 million leva from the state budget in 2007, instead of the previously planned 1.2 billion leva, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Nihat Kabil told Darik Radio.

Agriculture is one of the fields criticised in the European Commission's (EC) monitoring reports on Bulgaria's readiness to join the EU. Bulgaria promised to meet all EU requirements in the so called 'red' sectors before its entry to the union on January 1 2007.

A big number of Bulgaria's small agriculture producers, especially the tobacco producers, would fail to receive EU subsidies because they possessed less than the required 10 hectares of land, Oresharski said as quoted by Darik.

In order to receive funding small tobacco producers would have to unite, but it was a long and complicated process, Kabil said.

Kabil also said that the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry's institution for control of the EU funds utilisation would be formed by the end of 2006.