SOFIA (AFP) - Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov told Parliament yesterday that he would like to see Bulgaria’s 450-strong troop contingent out of Iraq before the end of the year, but for the pullout not to be hasty. “I continue to call for there to be a fast but not premature withdrawal of our forces,” Parvanov declared in a statement marking the third anniversary of his inauguration as president. He said that after elections in Iraq on January 30, “the coalition partners in Iraq should set a tentative date (for Bulgaria’s withdrawal), linked to some concrete goals.” He called on Parliament to fix a withdrawal of Bulgarian troops to before the end of 2005.

CHISINAU (AP) - Romanian President Traian Basescu said yesterday that he was eager to build closer ties between his country and neighboring Moldova, which until 1940 was part of Romania. Basescu has made improving relations with Moldova one of his top foreign policy goals, and his one-day visit yesterday to Moldova was his first foreign trip as Romania’s president. Some two-thirds of Moldovans are of Romanian descent. Basescu pledged his country’s strong support for Moldova, saying that Romania was ready to provide its neighbor with electricity, which Moldova needs after Trans-Dniester, a Russian-speaking separatist province in eastern Moldova, cut electricity supplies from plants in the east. Basescu and Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin signed a joint statement pledging to cooperate in fighting cross-border crime and to improve cultural and economic ties.

Romania’s Foreign Ministry appealed to Serbian authorities yesterday not to go ahead with plans to demolish a recently built Romanian Orthodox church. Authorities in the village of Negotin, 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of Belgrade, notified the local Romanian Orthodox priest on Thursday that the church would be demolished because it was built without planning permission, the ministry said. The ministry said it hoped the Serbian authorities would find a solution so that friendly ties between the two countries wouldn’t be damaged. (AP)

Three people were slightly injured overnight when their ferry collided with an oil tanker in the Bosporus strait, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The agency quoted port authorities as saying the Liberian-registered tanker that was heading to Romania was not transporting any oil when the accident happened. It said poor visibility may have caused the incident which prompted authorities to shut down the strait to maritime traffic during the night. (AFP)