Meeting with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not rule out that his country might back out of the implementation of some major energy projects in Bulgaria, the ITAR-TASS news agency said on Tuesday.

The two prime ministers are in Poland for the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.

Borissov said the Bulgarian government would continue analyzing the rationale for the projects for construction of the Belene nuclear power plant and the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline. He said the government members had no earlier opportunity to fully go into the details of the intergovernmental agreements on these projects.

Putin showed understanding for the new cabinet's need to familiarize itself with the projects. "If your experts did not have a chance to study those documents for some election-related domestic policy reasons, we will do our best to make this possible," Putin said.

He stressed that all projects were designed to elevate Bulgaria's status as a major transiter of energy sources and to help it benefit from this.

"If, for some reasons and on the basis of analysis, your government concludes that some project is not in the Bulgarian interest, I assure you, dear Mr Prime Minister, there will be no problems whatsoever in the relations between our countries. We will not implement a project which is not acceptable to Bulgaria. We will seek another avenue. Russia will solve this problem in a different way," said Putin, quoted by ITAR-TASS. He added that even if this should happen, the Russian government would find other opportunities for cooperation.

Russia is only asking Bulgaria to make a decision as soon as possible, Putin said.

For his part, Borissov said the new Bulgarian government saw no problem for the implementation of the South Stream gas pipeline project, ITAR-TASS reported. "I believe there are no problems with South Stream; as to Bourgas-Alexandroupolis, the only problem - which was the subject of two local referendums - is environmental protection in the coastal area," Borissov also said.

Bulgaria will state its position on the energy projects envisioned in partnership with Russia after detailed analysis of the agreements signed by the previous government, Borissov told Putin, the government information service in Sofia said.

It was agreed that a Russian working group would visit Sofia and discuss with Bulgarian experts details of the commitments made so far by the two sides. Borissov assumed that a detailed study of the agreements and the commitments they entail would take between two and three months.

Source: BTA