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Sofia News Agency

Bulgarian PM Borisov (left) and UK PM Gordon Brown (right) met in London Monday night. Photo by Council of Ministers Following a visit to the United Kingdom, Bulgaria's Prime Minister has suggested that the country hosts centers of the secret services to combat organized crime and drugs trafficking.

“I was told the year before the general elections in the summer the special services and ambassadors of two countries have refused to work with their Bulgarian colleagues, demanding that Sofia puts its house in order,” Borisov told Nova TV channel on Tuesday.

He stressed that the then Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev has been warned about this refusal, but declined to specify whether the two countries he refers to are the United Kingdom and the United States.

“I know we stand a serious chance to host the center of the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government and a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom,"
Borisov said.

The prime minister stressed that the United Kingdom fully supports Bulgaria's aspirations for entering the Eurozone and has vowed to make more investments in the energy and tourism sector.

London will also insist that the European Commission intervenes in the Greek farmers blockade, which has brought to a halt the traffic at the border between the two EU members and has incurred millions of euros of losses to Bulgarian businesses, Borisov assured.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown did not speak to the media after meeting his Bulgarian counterpart on Monday.

According to the official site of the UK Prime Minister office, Gordon Brown has welcomed Bulgaria’s increased troop levels in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the two leaders had a “warm and constructive” 45-minute meeting.

On the European economy, Gordon Brown and Boyko Borisov agreed on the need to drive forward economic reform and to promote job creation and growth in the region.

The two countries also agreed to intensify UK-Bulgarian cooperation on energy and climate change, the economy, and security issues.