A Libyan court postponed a criminal defamation trial on Sunday against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been sentenced to death for infecting more than 400 children with HIV.

The medical workers, convicted in December for intentionally starting an HIV epidemic in a children's hospital, are facing the defamation charges after three Libyan police officers and a doctor complained they falsely accused them of torture, Reuters news agency reported.

Judge Salem Hamrouni told the court the trial was postponed until April 22 to give a Bulgarian lawyer, who has just joined the defence team, time to study the case.

Leading scientists have repeatedly said the epidemic started before the nurses and doctor arrived at the hospital in the Mediterranean port of Benghazi in 1998, most likely due to poor hygiene. More than 50 of the infected children have died.

In the infection trial, the Libyan prosecution based its case mainly on confessions from some of the nurses, who say they are innocent and that they were tortured to falsely admit guilt.

The three complaining police officers and Libyan doctor were acquitted in June 2005, along with six other Libyan policemen, of torturing the Bulgarian women and Palestinian man.

In the defamation trial, a Libyan prosecutor has urged the court to give the medics a maximum six-years in prison and force them to pay compensation.

Bulgaria, backed by its allies the European Union and the United States, has called for the release of the condemned, but Tripoli has remained defiant under international pressure.

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