SPANISH ambassador Jose Angel Lopez Jorrin's three-year term of office in Bulgaria is coming to an end and he will be leaving for Madrid mid-October.

This was revealed exclusively to The Sofia Echo on September 22. Born in Madrid on April 1, 1948 Jorrin graduated in law and started his diplomatic career in 1974. He has been on assignments in Peru, Venezuela, Caracas, the Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Meanwhile ambassadors of five countries presented their credentials to Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov. The new French ambassador Yves-Saint Geours, who has taken over from Jean Loup Kuhn-Delforge. Born on February 5 1953, Geours is a master in Spanish and Latin American sciences and a doctor in history. He was an adviser to the French Foreign Minister and has worked at the Foreign Ministry in France since 1996 till September 2004. He was also Head of the French Cultural Institute in Lima (1985-1989).

Koichiro Fukui has succeeded Yasuyoshi Ichihashi as Japanese ambassador. Fukui was formerly chief executive of the leading telecommunications company KKDI Corporation and the Development Bank of Japan.

Thailand, Malaysia and Madagascar have also replaced the chiefs of their diplomatic missions in Sofia. Voravit Kanitassen, Van Yusuf Bin Embong, and Eloa Alfonce Maxim Dovo also handed their credentials to Purvanov.

Purvanov signed decrees appointing Bulgaria's new ambassadors to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel and Romania, the President's press office said.

Purvanov appointed Stefan Dimitrov, who used to work in the Foreign Ministry, as Bulgaria's ambassador to Armenia, Petko Dimitrov as ambassador to Israel and Ivan Palchev as ambassador to Azerbaijan. Palchev formerly was an MP for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRFs), from 1990 to 1994. He was also head of the National Security Committee. He is also the author of a book about MRF leader Ahmed Dogan.

Petko Dimitrov was a plenipotentiary representative of Bulgaria's Foreign Minister on the Libya case, of the five nurses convicted and sentenced to death for allegedly deliberately infecting several hundred Libyan children with HIV.

Purvanov signed a decree relieving Nikolai Milkov of the post of Bulgarian ambassador to Romania and appointing Konstantin Andreev in his place. Milkov is a deputy foreign minister and was officially released with a president's decree from the post of ambassador.

Meanwhile, On September 14, the Pennsylvanian Supreme Court in Philadelphia hosted the ceremony of the official appointment of Stephen McEwan as honorary consul of Bulgaria in this region of the United States. Bulgaria's ambassador to the US, Elena Poptodorova said McEwan's appointment would doubtless contribute to the enhancement and promotion of commercial, economic and cultural relations between Bulgaria and the state of Pennsylvania.