Bulgaria’s Cabinet appointed Petko Sertov head of the new State Agency for National Security, Prime-Minister Sergei Stanishev said at a news conference.

Sertov said that he would officially announce his deputies in January 2008. It was expected that he would propose Ivan Drashov, former head of the National Security Service and general Nikolai Nikolov, former head of Security, Military Police and Military Counter-Intelligence Service of the Defence Ministry.

The new State Agency for National Security, which critics have called the second Interior Ministry, would unite the National Security Service, the military counter-intelligence and financial intelligence, Dnevnik daily said. The three services were currently split between the Interior, Defence and Finance Ministries.

The agency will be subjected to the Prime-Minister and will see to national security, the fight against organised crime, corruption and protection of classified information.

According to unofficial information, nearly 3000 people will work for the new agency. They will have the right to trace, eavesdrop, detain and search people.