"Bulgaria-Norway: Stop Human Trafficking" is the working title of a project which will apply for 500,000 euro in EU financing, BTA reports.

The implementation of the project was discussed at Monday's meeting between Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and his Norwegian counterpart Knut Storberget, who thanked Bulgaria for its support for Norway's accession to the Treaty of Prum.

A working group of Norwegian experts has until mid-March to finalize the draft documents in Oslo and send them in Sofia for submission to Brussels by the end of March. Most of the money will be invested in analytical software for training of officers from the two countries, for equipment for mobile and stationary communications and for video surveillance.

The two ministers discussed bilateral cooperation between the law enforcement authorities and praised the good partnership between the two countries' police forces. Storberget also commended police cooperation, especially after President Georgi Purvanov's visit to Norway in 2006, when an agreement on cooperation between the two ministries was signed.

Petkov and Storberget discussed aspects of practical cooperation: Bulgarian and Norwegian policemen interacted in operations in 17 cases of crimes committed by Bulgarians in Norway, above all trafficking in young women for sexual exploitation.

Norway thanked Bulgaria for a police operation in which an international gang nased in Oslo was broken up last June. Its members - Bulgarians, Norwegians and citizens of other countries - trafficked women for sexual exploitation. As a result of cooperation, the police arrested 12 gang members.

The sides praised cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and other types of transnational crime, and discussed ways to deepen and improve it, including in joint projects for the development of the Western Balkans.

Some special operations were discussed with Norwegian Police Commissioner Ingelin Killengreen at the Bulgarian Police Directorate later in the day. Bulgaria will send a liaison officer to deal with cases of women arrested for prostitution.