Bulgaria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev and the chairman of the board of directors of the Benghazi International Fund Mark Pierini are to discuss an agreement between Bulgaria and the fund on September 3 2007.

On August 2 2007, Bulgaria’s Cabinet approved the agreement as a basis for further negotiations with the fund, a Foreign Ministry press release said.

After the discussion, the agreement will be officially signed, Focus news agency reported.

Chaushev and Pierini will also discuss the further work of the fund.

Chaushev said that the Cabinet had decided for Libya’s debt to Bulgaria to be conceded to the fund as part of Bulgaria’s contribution to the HIV-infected children in Benghazi.

Libya’s debt will be used for improvement of the medical treatment conditions of the children. “This action has a humanitarian goal and is a practical step towards helping the affected families,” Chaushev said.

The debt, including the interest, amounted to $6.6 million.

Six Bulgarian medics were accused of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV in a hospital in Benghazi. The medics were sentenced to death; years later their verdicts were commuted to life imprisonment and they returned home under a Bulgarian-Libyan judicial agreement. The six were pardoned after arriving in Bulgaria.