These are some of the top headlines in Bulgarian newspapers on March 5 2008. The Sofia Echo has not verified these stories and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

Politics

- Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) opposes the resignation of transport minister Petar Moutafchiev resigning. BSP absolved the minister for any blame for the tragedy in the Sofia-Kardam train, Monitor daily reported.

- The European Commission does not plan to release the aid financing frozen over alleged corruption any time soon, Dnevnik daily reported. Disbursement of funds under Phare programme has been halted last week, while earlier this year, the European executive also froze around 360 million euro in funding under the ISPA scheme and regional development operational programme.

Social

- A working group with members of Parliament (MPs) from the ruling three-way coalition want the fees paid for medical check-ups and hospital stays to be abolished as part of the healthcare reform. Doctors have opposed the initiative, qualifying it as "wild populism", Sega daily said.

- Central and local authorities should help young married couples to buy their first housing, according to a draft law backed by BSP, Standart daily reported.

Economy

- Around 15-20 per cent of all vineyards in Bulgaria need to be uprooted and replaced with new saplings, Monitor daily quoted the chair of the wine-growers industry association, Plamen Mollov, as saying.

- Housing prices in Sofia rose by an average of 53 per cent in 2007. Panel housing prices grew most, by 63 per cent, while new housing prices showed an increase of 45 per cent, daily 24 Chassa quoted Foros real estate agency as saying.