Quickservice restaurant chain Burger King is poised to enter the Bulgarian market, "Dnevnik" daily reported Tuesday.

The information was confirmed by Petar Tsikalov from the team that is negotiating the launch of the first local Burger King outlets.

No details will be released before the purchase of the outlet sites is finalized, said Tsikalov.

Sources told Dnevnik that the Polish division of Dutch AmRest Holdings NV, a franchisee of Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King with restaurants in Central and Eastern Europe, had initially planned to bring the quickservice brand to Bulgaria.

The Polish company declined to confirm, saying that all new information should first be notified to the Warsaw bourse where it is listed.

In March 2007, AmRest said it will expand to Bulgaria after receiving approval from franchise holder Yum! Brands Inc. Their first KFC outlet in Bulgaria should open by the end of 2007. The company did not say how many launches are planned for Bulgaria.

The Samex company is the other KFC franchisee in Bulgaria while Excel Associates has a Pizza Hut franchise.

Burger King arch-rival McDonald's already has over 20 franchises around Bulgaria. The company said it owned 20 per cent of the local quickservice restaurant market in 2006.