ON a motion by Libyan prosecution authorities, the trial against six Bulgarian medics was adjourned again on Monday.

The Arraignment Chamber in Benghazi will decide whether a criminal court should try the defendants by August 5. The judge is to set a date for the next hearing within days.

Six Bulgarian nurses and a doctor are charged with infesting 393 Libyan children with HIV.

After the first hearing of the case before the Arraignment Chamber in Benghazi on June 3, the chamber ordered additional investigation and questioning of the defendants, which ended earlier this month.

For the first time, Bulgarian diplomats were allowed in the courtroom. An interpreter, the medics' Bulgarian lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov, a representative of the law office of their Libyan lawyer Osman Bizanti as well as four representatives of the citizens committee of the infected children's relatives were also present in the courtroom.

The Foreign Ministry said in a press release that the six Bulgarians had had an opportunity to talk briefly to their lawyer and the Bulgarian diplomats. They confirmed to them that they are accommodated in very good conditions.

Last week lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov was formally allowed to represent the six Bulgarians at the trial.

In an interview with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), Bizanti said that the six Bulgarians would be returned to Tripoli where their questioning will continue. He also spoke of protests in Benghazi by the families of children who have died from or who have AIDS.

The lawyer said he did not expect the trial of the Bulgarians to be separated from the trial against the main defendant in the case, Palestinian Ashraf al-Hajuj, on whose confessions the charges against the Bulgarians largely rest. Bizanti does not think that the Bulgarians could be charged separately, either, because, the charges are common for all six of them.

He said that the possibility of the Bulgarians being released on bail depends on what the judge decides on August 5.

Before leaving for a visit to Italy on Monday, Foreign Minister Solomon Passi said Bulgaria had been receiving full cooperation from the Libyan authorities with regard to the AIDS trial.

"I believe that the period until August 5 will be used in the most rational way in order to speed the finalising of the case," Passi said upon his return from Italy the same day.

"Our medics are people with lots of courage and energy and I admire the bravery with which they take their destiny," Passi said.