CAIRO, July 30 (Reuters) - The Arab League urged Bulgaria on Monday to respect a deal with Libya after the European country released six medics jailed by Libya for infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus. Libya on Saturday called on other Arab League members to review their ties with Bulgaria for pardoning and releasing the medics on arrival there, a step which it said violated bilateral accords. The Arab ministers demanded that the Bulgarian government "meet its commitments and pledges based on the judicial accord between the two countries", said Abderraouf Basti, the head of the Tunisian delegation, reading from the final communique of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers. The ministers also expressed their "regret that such a human tragedy which must not be repeated and whose perpetrators must be punished ... is being politicised". Libya had commuted death sentences on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to life in prison after the families of the victims were paid $1 million each in a settlement financed by an international fund. In a subsequent deal, the European Union promised closer ties with Libya in exchange for custody of the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor, who were flown to Bulgaria this week and immediately pardoned and freed by the president. Bulgarian officials said the pardon was legal.
