The Bulgarian government has decided to give up on financing repayment of external debt with internal resources and will seek money from foreign markets.

The decision is written in a draft that is expected to be voted on soon, the Friday issue of "Capital Daily" reports. Bulgaria has to find and repay EUR 818.5 M in foreign debt by January 2013.

Atomstroyexport, the Russian contractor selected to build the Belene NPP, will not give up on the lawsuit for EUR 58 M against Bulgaria's National Electric Company (NEK) at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris.

The information was published Friday by Russia's business daily "Vedomosti," just in the eve of the arrival in Moscow of Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister, Delyan Dobrev. Dobrev is set to ask the Russian side to agree on stopping the joint project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant, NPP, in Bulgaria's Danube town of Belene, without the country having to pay penalties.

Bulgaria's new economy and energy minister will travel to Moscow on Thursday, a day after the government decided to abandon plans to build Belene nuclear power plant on the Danube River.

Bulgaria´s government announced on Wednesday it has abandoned plans to build a new, 2000 megawatt nuclear power plant on the Danube River for which it has contracted Russian state firm Atomstroyexport.

Bulgaria's Belene Nuclear Power Plant will not be constructed, the country's Deputy Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov announced on on Wednesday.

A natural gas power plant will be built in the Danube town of Belene instead, Goranov told reporters after Wednesday's Council of Ministers sitting.

The governments of Bulgaria and Turkey are going to hold their first ever joint sitting on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, Bulgarian Cabinet's press service announced.

Turkey will be the fourth country, with which Bulgaria will have a joint Cabinet sitting, after similar sittings with the Cabinets of Greece in 2010, and Israel and Romania in 2011.

Bulgaria will shell BGN millions to purchase Windows 8 Microsoft software for the needs of the State administration.

The information was reported at a briefing Monday by the Chief Secretary of the Council of Ministers, Rosen Zhelyazkov, who listed the amount as BGN 62 M, down from the budget forecast of BGN 90 M – a reduction the State was able to secure through the public tender.

Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, is leaving Tuesday on an official three-day visit to Qatar.

The delegation includes 7 ministers from the cabinet – of the Interior, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, of Foreign Affairs, Nikolay Mladenov, of Regional Development, Lilyana Pavlova, of Defense, Anyu Angelov, of Agriculture, Miroslav Naydenov, of Transport, Ivaylo Moskovski, and of Economy and Energy, Traicho Traikov.

Bulgaria's Health Minister, Stefan Konstantinov, will be axed unless he starts coping with his job, the country's PM Boyko Borisov declared on Monday.

The Prime Minister revealed that the MPs from his ruling center-right GERB party have assessed Konstantinov as his cabinet's weakest member.