The Government banned the exports of burnt coniferous and wide-leaf timber with a diameter of more than 4 sm of thinner end of all arboreal varieties as well as burnt firewood, the Government Information Service said Thursday in a press release.

The measure is undertaken because of the doubled area of forest fires in 2007 compared to 2005, the press release added.

The negative tendency was preserved in the winter months of 2007 as well, when unprecedented wildfires took place and numbered over 510 at an area of over 6,600 ha. The situation in July turned into a crisis and as a whole the number and area of forest fires in 2007 will be much higher than the average for the last 15 years.

By mid-July a total of 1,360 fires across a total area of 34,000 ha of forests, including 5,400 ha of crown fires, were registered.

Direct damages have been appraised at more than 3.5 million leva so far. A full inventory of affected forests is to be made and a several-fold increase is expected, the Council of Ministers added.