Closing down duty-free shops and petrol stations at Bulgaria's borders with Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey would "considerably improve the situation,” but would not end smuggling, Bulgarian State Administration Minister Nikolai Vassilev told Bulgarian National Television's morning talk show.

“The answer cannot be a 'yes' or a 'no'. No one can be fully satisfied, but to be fully dissatisfied will also be unrealistic,” he said, answering a question whether he was satisfied with the quality of service at the border check points. He added, though, that there had been considerable progress in recent years.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin, invited to the morning talk show of private broadcaster Nova TV, said that Bulgaria was very involved in finding a solution to the name row between Greece and Macedonia, an issue he discussed a day earlier with IS secretary of state Condoleezza Rice during her one-day visit to Bulgaria.

“We discussed it and we discussed it in detail. The US are currently working and co-operating very actively for finding a solution,”he said.

Kalfin said that the main onus for reaching a solution was on the new Macedonian government. Asked whether Skopje should show greater desire to compromise, Kalfin said that Macedonia's interest highly exceeded the compromise they needed to make, adding that both the US and Bulgaria thought now was the time for a break-through.

“When it comes to the Balkans, the US is inclined to listen very carefully to the Bulgarian stance,” Kalfin said.