Bulgaria denounced death sentences imposed by a Libyan court on five nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were found guilty of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus.

"The decision is deeply disappointing.

The Libyan court did not take into consideration all the proof of the nurses' innocence. The nurses have the right to justice in Libya"

Ivailo Kalfin, Bulgarian Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin called the decision "deeply disappointing". The Black Sea country's parliament urged

 the international community to put pressure on Libya to free the nurses.

"We appeal to the international community to categorically denounce the court's decision and join the appeal for the Libyan side to immediately release the condemned," parliament speaker Georgi Pirinski told the chamber.

It is the second time the nurses have been condemned to death on the same charges. They were first sentenced to face a firing squad in 2003, but that verdict was overturned last year.

The United States and the European Union, which Bulgaria joins on Jan. 1, say Libya must let them go, pointing to evidence they were tortured to confess and that an epidemic at the Benghazi hospital where they worked began before they arrived in 1998.

The families of the infected have demanded 10 million euros

($13.10 million) in compensation for each child -- "blood money" under which the relatives would be able to quash the verdict.

But it could outrage the victims' families in Benghazi, a bastion of anti-Gaddafi dissent, and put a spotlight on a dilapidated Libyan medical system that Western scientists say is the real culprit for the tragedy.

It is the second time the medics have been condemned to death on the same charges. They were first sentenced to face a firing squad in 2004, but that verdict was overturned last year.

The families of the infected children, over 50 of whom have died, have demanded 10 million euros ($13.10 million) in compensation for each child -- "blood money" under which the relatives would be able to quash the verdicts.

It's a negative message for the European Union. I cannot imagine that the death sentences will be carried out"

EU JUSTICE AND SECURITY COMMISSIONER FRANCO FRATTINI

Bulgaria and its allies have refused to pay, saying that doing so would be an admission of guilt.

But, together with Brussels and Washington, it is trying to arrange medical aid, living expenses and treatment in Western hospitals for the families, which analysts say could appease the Libyans and prompt the medics' release.

The families of the nurses, who have been jailed since 1999, were distraught.

"This is such a disgrace. I simply cannot believe that such injustice can be done," said Polina Dimitrova, daughter of nurse Snezhana Dimitrova.

 "I can only imagine how they (the condemned) feel this must have crushed them."

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