Bulgaria's opposition ethnic Turkish party has joined socialists in calling for an urgent deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying the country badly needs it.

"It is clear that Bulgaria's economy is about to enter recession. An agreement with the IMF, if not a panacea, will assure international financial markets that the country is stable," Yordan Tsonev, an economist and Deputy Chair of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party, told Darik radio on Thursday.

Romania expects to reach an agreement with Bulgaria in their dispute over 17 square km of their economic zones in the Black Sea, Romanian Foreign Minister Crisian Diaconescu has announced.

Diaconescu declared Friday that the dispute between Bulgaria and Romania in the Black Sea that he himself brought up at the end of March will be resolved very fast, as cited by the Romanian news site Ziare.

Kalina Ilieva, the notorious former head of Bulgaria's Agriculture Fund, has been officially charged with forging her university diploma.

Ilieva is also charged with forging four other documents claiming she had graduated from the University of Engineering and Economics in Berlin.

The decision to scrap plans to build Belene nuclear power plant is a catastrophic mistake, taken under US pressure, and dooms Bulgaria's only technology sector to slow death, a socialist has fumed.

"The Americans, not Borisov decided the fate of Belene," Socialist MP and former economy and energy minister Rumen Ovcharov told Nova TV morning broadcast, referring to Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

Bulgarian businessman Nikolay Valkanov is taking over the concession of the Gorubso Madan metal mines from Valentin Zahariev.

The agreement was signed late Friday evening at the Economy Ministry in the presence of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and the new Economy and Energy Minister, Delyan Dobrev. Borisov personally announced the news life on the State TV BNT.

The Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism (MIET) has officially rejected the rumors about the fake university diplomas of Delyan Dobrev, the newly appointed Economy and Energy Minister.

In a Friday media statement, MIET explains that Dobrev holds a BA degree in Economics from the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolay Mladenov has reacted with irritation at allegations by dismissed Minister of Economy and Energy Traicho Traikov that the latter's recent firing was partially caused by Mladenov.

Thursday Bulgaria's PM Boyko Borisov said he dismisses Traikov over a failed Bulgarian-Qatari business forum organized in Doha over the week.

Bulgaria needs to think again before giving up on shale gas and going further with Belene NPP, said Vice-Minister of Economy and Energy Delyan Dobrev.

Dobrev has been tipped by PM Boyko Borisov to succeed Traicho Traikov, until recently his boss at the ministry, before being dismissed last Thursday.

Bulgaria's left-wing Coalition for Bulgaria demands the resignations of Health Minister, Stefan Konstantinov, and of Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov over the "staff policy failure of the ruling GERB."

The position of Coalition for Bulgaria was read by the Member of the Parliament of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, and Deputy Chairman of the Socialists Parliamentary Group, Angel Naydenov.

The Board of Directors of Bulgaria's state-owned Irrigation Systems will choose a new Chair on Tuesday after Georgi Harizanov was temporarily removed due to a criminal investigation against him.

Harizanov is accused of embezzling USD 50 000 from a Sofia-based company back in 2001.

Some 1000 participants joined the so-called Lukov March, a procession deemed to be neo-Nazi, whose organizers defend it as patriotic.

The 2012 "Lukov March" procession, which has been held for the last couple of years by Bulgarian far-right formations to honor the memory of Gen. Hristo Lukov, a hero from Bulgaria's national unification wars turned an anti-Semite and a pro-Nazi activist, was also said to honor the memory of Vasil Levski, Bulgaria's undisputed national hero from the anti-Ottoman liberation struggle.