Bulgarian spy chief looks ahead

By Nick Thorpe BBC correspondent in Sofia

Bulgaria's foreign intelligence service does not have an exactly rosy reputation - at least not with the BBC.

In 1978, a journalist at the BBC Bulgarian Service, Georgi Markov, was stabbed with a poisoned umbrella by one of its agents, while crossing Waterloo Bridge in London.

He died three days later.

When I met the new head of the service in Sofia, we focused on the future rather than the past.

Rendezvous

Kircho Kirov rang personally to apologise - he was going to be 15 minutes late for our appointment.

When his black car pulled up outside my hotel, I was surprised by the warmth of his greeting and the elegance of his pale grey suit.

He is regarded by his allies in Sofia as a new broom, or at least an old broom in new clothing, chosen at the request of his staff, to sweep out an old cupboard

And by the fact he had brought his wife.

They had just been to supper with President Parvanov.

I suggested we walk a short distance, through the lime-blossomed streets of Sofia, to a small French-style cafe I had spied out earlier for our encounter.

It was 8.15 in the evening, my first day back in the city after a two-year absence.

Old cupboard, new broom

Colonel Kirov is 52 - a handsome, fatherly figure.

But very few Bulgarians know what he looks like. Only one photograph of him has ever appeared in a newspaper.

Markov was killed by a poison-tipped umbrella

He joined the Bulgarian foreign intelligence service in 1975, and trained for nine months at a KGB school.

He was later station chief in Belgrade, and Tirana, and speaks both Serbian and Albanian fluently, as well as an almost flawless English.

A former member of the Communist party, he seemed an unusual choice for the top job - 13 years after the fall of the old regime.

His predecessor, Dimo Gyaurov, was sacked amid great controversy in February.

Some media reports linked his departure to the Bulgarian export of tank gear-boxes to Syria last summer - allegedly destined for Iraq.

Colonel Kirov himself describes the crisis in the service which brought him to power as "nothing spectacular".

He is regarded by his allies in Sofia as a new broom, or at least an old broom in new clothing, chosen at the request of his staff, to sweep out an old cupboard.

His detractors dismiss him in scandalised tones, as an old broom, in what was beginning to look like a new cupboard.

Very few agents like him, from Communist times, are left - under 10%, according to one source.

The biggest problem for the new service is recruitment.

The older generation complain that the spring cleaning has already gone too far.

That there are few experienced operators left. That the spider's web is broken. Just when real agents would be really useful.

Even the Americans have realised that technology is not enough.

Dangerous liaisons?

Our waitress obligingly lowers the music, and the interview begins.

He reads from carefully prepared answers, in his own hand-writing.

He cleared our meeting with the president and prime minister first, he says.

But the answers are cautious.

Can Nato trust Bulgaria not to betray its secrets, when its officials win a place on sensitive military committees next year?

"Frankly speaking, the problems are minor," he says.

He can guarantee that the Bulgarian intelligence services have accepted the values of Nato, and are making all the necessary efforts to prepare for membership.

They already co-operate closely with the CIA, MI6 and so on.

A picture emerges of a Balkan region almost overwhelmed by a tide of crime and corruption

What guarantees can he offer that the service he leads will not be open to political manipulation?

His brother is, after all, a senior figure in the opposition Socialist Party.

He will simply not allow any manipulation, direct or indirect, he says.

We sweep through the other answers. And get onto the serious business, of whisky, afterwards.

Combating corruption

Away from the microphones and recordings of his profession and mine, we can talk more openly about the rest of the iceberg - the powerful mafia-style groups, with roots deep in the intelligence services of the old Soviet Union.

And the Albanians, said to control much of the drug trade in the Balkans.

The problem of Kosovo's undefined status.

The recent assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic.

Speaking with him, as with other security analysts in Bulgaria and Romania, a picture emerges of a Balkan region almost overwhelmed by a tide of crime and corruption.

Enter the European Union, backstage left, and the United States, backstage right, on white chargers.

By joining Nato and the EU, these countries do not fear a loss of sovereignty - they positively welcome it.

They even want Nato to help screen their officials.

They want European Union help to identify corrupt police and customs officers, and hardest of all, corrupt judges.

The recent, acrimonious disputes between some European countries, and the US, over Iraq, seemed incomprehensible in Sofia and Bucharest.

People here embraced the West in 1989, in its entirety, and they are still believers.