TRIPOLI, Dec 20 (AFP) - Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi arrived in Tripoli early Thursday to be present for the verdict in the trial of six Bulgarians facing death for allegedly deliberately infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus, the official JANA agency reported.
Passi is due to meet his Libyan counterpart Rahman Shalgham during his three-day trip, JANA said.
"I feel at home in this desert, I hope our two countries will resume their good relations," he said on arrival.
Six Bulgarians -- a doctor and five nurses -- are accused along with a Palestinian doctor of deliberately injecting 393 children in their care with blood products infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in a hospital in the northern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Twenty-three children are reported to have died already.
The accused are charged with "premeditated murder with the aim of undermining Libyan security". All have pleaded not guilty.
Passi is also expected to meet with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, who is president of a charity foundation named after his family in Tripoli, Bulgaria's BTA news agency reported Tuesday.
The Kadhafi foundation is an observer in the process and Seif Al-Islam pressed for the release of the accused in October.
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