Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin plans to offer the use of the port of Bourgas at the emergency meeting of European Union top diplomats that will, on August 13, discuss the conflict in South Ossetia, Dnevnik daily reported, quoting deputy foreign minister Milen Keremedchiev.

Keremedchiev, as well as representatives of Bulgaria's secret services, met on August 12 with President Georgi Purvanov, who said in a statement after the meeting that Bulgaria was ready to offer humanitarian aid to the civilians in the conflict area.

"Bulgaria supports the efforts of the French presidency of the EU to end the military conflict," Purvanov said in a statement. "Bulgarian state institutions are unanimous in their position that military actions have to be stopped and a peaceful and lasting solution to the problem found."

Although the conflict presents no immediate danger to Bulgaria's security, it posed a long-term threat to the "transport and energy system, as well as the entire development of the Black Sea region," Purvanov said.

The Foreign Ministry was ready to evacuate Bulgarian nationals out of the conflict area, the statement went on to say, but according to Dnevnik, only two people, out of 44 that are registered with the Bulgarian embassy, have so far asked to be moved out of the country.

EU's foreign ministers will meet hammer out a joint position on the military conflict between Georgia and Russia a day after French president Nicolas Sarkozy visited Moscow to help broker a cease-fire.

Hostilities broke out in the early hours of August 8, when Tbilisi ordered ground troups to wrestle back control of the break-away region, but initial gains were quickly lost after Russia retaliated in force.

Georgia signed a unilateral cease-fire on August 11, which Russia initially rejected, saying that Georgian troops were still active in the conflict area. On August 12, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev ordered a cease-fire, but set several conditions to end the conflict - the partial dimilitarisation of Georgian armed forces and Georgia's commitment not to use force in the future.

Russia has rejected Georgia's allegations that the goal of its military actions were to topple president Mikhail Saakashvili.