Five Bulgarian nurses and two doctors -- one Bulgarian and one Palestinian -- face the death penalty if found guilty of infecting 426 children in a hospital in the northern Libyan town of Benghazi with the virus that causes

Twenty-three of the children have already died.

State prosecutors charge that they infected the children with tainted blood products, but Luc Montagnier -- the French doctor who first isolated the Human Immune-Deficiency Virus (HIV) -- testified in September that the epidemic had begun before the arrival of the accused.

He said it was probably caused by unsterilised needles and other equipment.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi told national radio that the latest development in the trial "does not favour the accused."

"We will however not give up the fight to ensure that they receive a fair trial," added the minister who met with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to discuss the trial on December 20.

All the accused have pleaded innocent in court.

The Libyan police said two of the nurses and the Palestinian doctor admitted guilt, but the three have told the court that they confessed under duress after being maltreated by the police.

According to the radio report, the Libyan experts have also rejected their complaints.

The trial began in February 2000 and is due to resume on January 12.

TERRA.WIRE