THE government has announced it will fill 5,000 police posts as part of a package of anti-crime measures to fight a recent increase in violent offences across the country.

There was an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday and measures were presented to Parliament on Tuesday along with proposed changes in the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The most radical modification to the Penal Code is increasing the sentence for child rape from six to 20 years' imprisonment.

The 5,000 new police jobs will be regular officer and district inspector posts. Other anti-crime measures include stationing more uniformed police officers outside schools, cracking down on illegal firearms possession and tightening controls over the production and storage of explosives.

Parliament convened on Tuesday to hear Interior Minister Emanuil Yordanov and Minister of Justice Teodosii Simeonov report on the state of crime in Bulgaria and present the new measures.

Prime Minister Ivan Kostov said: "The government tightened control over the activities of the financial organisations and the criminals shifted to the illegal trafficking of drugs and weapons."

At Monday's extraordinary meeting Kostov confirmed there would be no cabinet reshuffle, however, because it is not normal practice in the run-up to a general election.

The opposition has announced its intention to table a vote of no confidence in the government's anti-crime policy following an escalation of violent offences in the country.

The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) called for the resignation of Interior Minister Emanuil Yordanov last Tuesday because of the rapid increase in crime. The IMRO blamed ineffective work by the Interior Ministry.

Kostov replied: "I have no intention of making such moves just before elections and creating tension and insecurity in the country. Do not provoke reckless behaviour from me."

He said this during a debate held in the wake of a spate of violent crime which included bomb blasts, assassinations of underworld businessmen, an assault on an MP and last Monday's fatal shooting of a teenage girl by an off-duty police officer. Kostov said it would soon be clear whether there was some kind of conspiracy linking the crime wave or whether it was a unfortunate coincidence of events.