Bulgaria has requested a meeting with Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis on January 26 2009 to discuss a request for the government in Athens to act to end the blockade of Greece's border checkpoints that has led to chaos, long queues and financial losses for several days.

Bulgaria has been in constant touch with the Greek government about the situation through the embassy in Athens. In the talks with Bakoyannis, Bulgaria will be represented by European Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry has issued an advisory to Bulgarians not to attempt to travel to Greece by road, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

Bulgarian Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev and Deputy Foreign Minister Lyubomir Kychukov met representatives of Bulgarian road carriers on January 25 2009. The carriers say that their losses because of the Greek farmers' protest exceeds 10 million euro.

Deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev said on January 25 that the precise amount of financial losses was difficult to assess but was certain to be large because Greece was among Bulgaria's top five trading partners, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.

Keremedchiev said that Sofia had already sent two notes to Athens urging a prompt solution to the crisis. On January 23, the Greek embassy in Sofia issued an apology in a media statement.

Bulgarian television station bTV said that the checkpoint at Kulata between Bulgaria and Greece had been the worst-hit by the strike. After negotiations, Kulata was opened at intervals to allow vehicle traffic, but there was no systematic schedule for the openings, bTV reported during its 7pm news bulletin.

A short while earlier, Bulgarian news agency Focus reported that all Bulgaria-Greece border checkpoints were closed.

About 200 heavy freight trucks were waiting at the Kulata checkpoint. Half were Bulgarian and the rest from a range of countries including Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland. On the Greek side of the border, about 300 trucks were waiting, and again about half of these were Bulgarian.

The Kapitan Petko Voyvoda border checkpoint worked between 2pm and 3pm. Vehicles were allowed to pass. There were about 50 vehicles at the border checkpoint at about 6.30pm. Half were trucks and half were cars and there were no buses.

Ilinden border checkpoint was open for three hours up to 5pm and would be closed until the morning of January 26, Focus said.

Earlier, the Association of Bulgarian Enterprises for International Road Transports and the Roads (AEBTRI) sent two vehicles loaded with bottles of mineral water for the drivers waiting at the Bulgarian - Greek border checkpoints,

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said that an ambulance had been sent by the Health Ministry to the border to give medical assistance if required.

Bulgaria has deployed additional border police at the checkpoints, Bulgarian National Television reported. Earlier in the week, border police had to step in to prevent an attempted incursion into Bulgaria by protesting farmers driving tractors.

The farmers who have organised the protest want the Greek government to agree to talks on increasing the 500 million euro proposed as assistance for them.