Marovic's special envoy, former Yugoslav president Zoran Lilic -- who held the top post during the rule of the former strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s -- has reportedly established close links with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"I will ask Mr Lilic to get into a direct contact with the authorities in Bulgaria and help as much as we realistically can," Marovic told the TV station from Romania, where he took part in the summit of Eastern and Central European countries.

The nurses and a Palestinian doctor were accused of deliberately injecting the HIV virus that can lead to AIDS into more than 400 children in a paediatric hospital in the northern Libyan city of Benghazi. Forty-three of the children have since died.

The six were sentenced on May 6 to death by firing squad after a trial that had lasted several years.

All six proclaim their innocence and Bulgaria has said it will appeal the verdict against its five citizens.

However, Lilic, who has returned this week from a visit to Tripoli, refused to comment on Marovic's offer, saying he would meet with reporters on Monday.

In an interview published earlier this month, Lilic denied he would discuss a possible release of five Bulgarian nurses during his talks with Kadhafi.

"I think that Bulgaria has first to prove, if possible, that its citizens are not guilty... I would never misuse the friendship and interfere in Libya's internal affairs," Lilic told NIN weekly.

TERRA.WIRE