Bush Ends European Tour With Promise to Help Bulgaria

SOFIA, Bulgaria, June 11 -- President Bush pledged to help U.S. ally Bulgaria win the release of five Bulgarian nurses held in Libya since 1999 on charges of infecting Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS.

"We will continue to make clear to Libya that the release of these nurses is a high priority for our country," Bush said at a news conference with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. Bush noted that the United States is contributing to a fund to help the children.

The nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced last year to death in the case, which has drawn international condemnation.

In consultations at the final stop of an eight-day European tour, Bush also discussed Iraq, Afghanistan and the continuing stalemate over the fate of Kosovo, the Serbian province that has been run by the United Nations since 1999.

At the news conference, Bush repeated that he favors independence for Kosovo. Russia has threatened to veto an independence plan for Kosovo at the United Nations, saying it would set a bad precedent. Serbia opposes the plan to cut away its southernmost province.

"As we seek independence for Kosovo, we've also got to make it clear to Serbia that there's a way forward," Bush said, "maybe in NATO, maybe in the E.U. and definitely in better relations with the United States."

Bush thanked Bulgaria for its help in the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said that an anti-missile shield that the United States has proposed for construction in Poland and the Czech Republic would be aimed at long-range missiles that would potentially fly over Bulgaria. Bulgaria itself would be protected by other systems directed against intermediate-range missiles, he said.

Parvanov replied that "we Bulgarians would accept any solution that would provide more guarantees -- more security guarantees, more guarantees of the indivisibility of the security of the Euro-Atlantic space." His country is a new member of the NATO alliance and the European Union and last year signed an agreement for U.S. troops to be based on its soil.

Later, the two leaders had lunch. In the afternoon, Bush attended a meeting with students at the American University in Bulgaria before departing for the United States.