Bulgaria would be the only EU member state, where the Muslim population was not made up of immigrants but was part of a local community, Reuters said.

Muslims in Bulgaria comprise 12 per cent of the 7.8 million people population and have lived in the country for centuries.

Christians and Muslims in Bulgaria lived in peace so far because they kept a certain distance, Reuters said.

Bulgarian Muslim leaders were afraid that EU accession could attract Islam fundamentalism from Western Europe. According to analyses eventual demands for further freedom for the Muslims could endanger Bulgaria's delicate ethnic and religious balance.

Unlike its neighbour Serbia, Bulgaria managed to escape religious conflict between Christians and Muslims, despite communist regime attempt to assimilate the Muslims in 1984 and 1985, Reuters said.

Communist-time bans were abolished. Religious institutions and Muslim schools are a common sight nowadays in Bulgarian towns.

Still, most Bulgarian Muslims live in poor villages with high level of unemployment and hope that the EU accession would bring them a better life.

Most of them expected no discrimination in Europe, but experts said that such trends were arising in the EU.