Bulgaria sharply protested against Muhammad Rashid, health minister of Lybia, who reportedly linked the AIDS epidemic in his country with the work of five Bulgarian nurses accused of infecting children.

The nurses and a Palestinian doctor have been charged with purposely infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV while working in the children's hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi. The six deny the charges, and the verdict of the court is expected on Dec. 19, AP news agency reported.

"The statements linking the AIDS epidemic in Benghazi with the work of the Bulgarian medics are unacceptable and groundless," said Bulgaria's foreign ministry spokesman Dimitar Tsanchev.

He was referring to a Dec. 2 speech by Libya's Health and Environment Minister Muhammad Rashid.

"Libya is the only country in the world which suffered this epidemic through a perpetrator (who injected) hundreds of Libyan children, the victims, with the HIV virus," Rashid was quoted as saying by Libya's official news agency Jamahiriya.

"It is absurd that such accusations should be carelessly leveled by the Libyan Health Minister, because he should have long been aware of the actual causes of the spread of AIDS in his country which have nothing to do with the Bulgarian health workers," Tsanchev told reporters.

French AIDS expert Luc Montagnier testified before the Benghazi court that the virus had spread in the hospital long before the six defendants were hired to work there, and that the epidemic was likely caused by poor hygiene.

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