Clayland Boyden Grey, US special envoy for European affairs and Eurasia energy, will meet Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and the Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin on October 7 in Sofia, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The visit of the American envoy to Bulgaria comes on the back of growing international interest for Bulgaria's energy policy, the ministry said.

Boyden Grey and Purvanov are expected to discuss Purvanov's initiative to hold a highest-level summit in Sofia in April 2009 on the topic of energy security and gas pipeline projects in Europe.

Bulgaria's Deputy Economic Minister Yavor Kouyumdjiev said on October 6 that Sofia would host the international conference on energetic security, with leaders from European Union states, Russia and the US expected to attend, Dnevnik daily reported.

During her visit to Sofia in July, US state secretary Condoleezza Rice said that it was possible for Washington to send its special envoy. The US has long called on Bulgaria to diversify its energy supply and ease dependency on Russia, the issue being raised during Stanishev's meeting with US president George W Bush at the White House in June.

Purvanov, meanwhile, has expressed his unhappiness with the slow progress made in drafting a common European energy policy. “Instead of debating whether South Stream is an alternative to Nabucco, we are making definite steps towards establishing Nabucco as a massive European project in its own right, which will be responsible for major energetic supply in the short future”, Parvanov said in a statement.

The common European energy security policy has been trying to establish the exact position of South Stream, a Russian-Italian joint venture passing through South Eastern Europe, to a large extent duplicating Nabucco, which the European Commission sees as a priority project.

Purvanov has said that with the expansion of the European Union and its subsequent integration of new member states, South Stream would become a paramount and vital international project.

South Stream, however, would be postponed by at least two years and was expected to become operational in 2015, rather than 2013, a report by Russian business daily Vedomosti has claimed, quoting a draft strategy for development of Russia's gas industry until 2030, drafted by Gazprom.

According to Purvanov, Bulgaria has contributed more than its fare share for contributing guarantees for the energy security in Europe. It was imperative that the EU will acknowledge and accept that there is an important future for nuclear energy and development on which Bulgaria heavily depends.