(Adds EU foreign ministers to meet paragraph 6) By Darren Ennis STRASBOURG, France, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The European Parliament urged European Union states to review ties with oil-rich Libya on Thursday unless it frees five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor facing the death penalty. The parliament resolution, a step up in European pressure on Tripoli to release the medics following Bulgaria's Jan. 1 entry into the EU, urged the bloc to review "the common policy of engagement with Libya in all relevant fields". Backed by all the assembly's political groups, it called on the EU executive and member states to put pressure on Libya to secure early release of the medics. "Libya should realise that her standing in the world and her relationship with the European Union and its member states is at stake," Liberal lawmaker Annemie Neyts said in a statement. Bulgarian MEP Stanimir Ilchev said it was up to the whole EU to press Libya to free the medics. "Failing that we should not hesitate to break off all relations with that country," he said. EU foreign ministers are expected to express serious concern about the sentences when they hold a regular meeting on Monday, but will also hold out the prospect of better relations if the medics were freed, an EU official and a diplomat said. EU aid and other programmes with Libya are limited but several European countries have extensive trade ties with Tripoli in sectors including energy and manufactured goods, and some lawmakers have called for such deals to come under review. A Libyan court sentenced the five nurses and a doctor to death last month -- the second time in the eight-year case -- for intentionally infecting hundreds of children with the virus that causes AIDS. Sofia and its allies cite overwhelming scientific evidence showing they are innocent. Brussels and Washington have both increased pressure on Tripoli in recent weeks, insisting the six are being used as scapegoats to deflect blame from Libya's medical system. ANGER IN BENGHAZI The case has hurt Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's efforts to renew ties with the West after decades of isolation, while anger in the port of Benghazi where the infections occurred is high. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said he would raise the issue with Gaddafi at a Jan. 27 meeting of the African Union. Reports have suggested Gaddafi would be willing to overturn the verdicts if Libya received compensation and a Libyan jailed in Scotland for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing was released. On Wednesday, EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Bulgarian Meglena Kuneva told Reuters there would be no such negotiation. Libya has said the case might be resolved by an executive body -- a so-called high judicial council -- in which Gaddafi's government could overrule the court's decision. It has demanded 10 million euros ($12.96 million) per child in compensation which, under Islamic law, would allow the victims' families to pardon the nurses. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said last week Sofia expects the medics to remain in jail for at least another year during an appeals process. (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Ingrid Melander in Brussels)
