Following long negotiations, six foreign medics held in Libya on charges of infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus have been released, after the European Union agreed it would work on normalization of relations with the African country.

Neither France nor the EU paid money for the release of five nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to life in Libya on charges of contaminating children with the AIDS virus, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor arrived in Sofia today following their release by Tripoli. The medics, convicted by Libya of deliberately infecting children with HIV, were pardoned by Bulgaria’s President Georgi Parvanov upon arrival.

Libya's decision to release five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, now a Bulgarian national, will help improve relations between the European Union and Libya, an EU commissioner said Tuesday.

The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in Libya Monday for a second time to negotiate the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to life in prison for allegedly contaminating children with AIDS. Libya`s top court last week commuted the death sentences against six to life imprisonment.

The future of Kosovo tops the list of issues being discussed today in Brussels at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers. Arriving at the talks, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt urged EU unity over the issue, which he said is key to the bloc's credibility.

Bulgaria sent an official request to Libya today to extradite six foreign medical workers jailed for infecting hundreds of children with HIV.

The European Union has welcomed Libya's decision to lift death sentences against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting children with HIV, following a large compensation payout to the victims' families from an international fund.

The United States and the European Union have joined Bulgaria in calling for Libya to send home six foreign medics who have had their death sentences commuted to life in prison.

More than half of 426 Libyan families of children with HIV have already received compensation money in a deal paving the way for the release of six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting the children.

Families of Libyan children infected with AIDS have accepted compensation topping 400 million dollars, a Libyan foundation confirmed on Sunday, a move that could pave the way for a death sentence to be lifted against six foreign medics.

Libya's Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentences on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus.