Interior Minister Roumen Petkov said that the statement of former Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov that tension existed between the two was absurd.

Ovcharov and Petkov are both deputy leaders of one of the ruling parties, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and both struggle for superiority, representing contradictious trends in the party, mediapool.bg said.

Petkov also said that he disagreed with statements that economic interests had impact on BSP. During the BSP national congress on June 3 2007, BSP Tatyana Doncheva mentioned relations between major businessmen and the Interior Ministry.

It was absurd for anyone to think that economic interest could influence party decisions, Petkov said.

He said that he was unworried about his position. Petkov said that he would resign only if he felt “discomfort with his consciousness” or in case of evident inability to cope with certain tasks.

According to Petkov preliminary parliamentary elections will have negative impact on Bulgaria as the results were unpredictable.