Brussels - The Czech presidency of the European Union said Thursday it was ready to remove a controversial art installation in Brussels depicting Bulgaria as a psychedelic Turkish toilet, following protests in Sofia.

The installation by Czech artist David Cerny is located in the main entrance hall of the council building in Brussels, where EU summits take place.

It is meant to poke fun at national cliches and stereotypes of the EU's 27 member states with an 8-ton jigsaw resembling a plastic scale model of an EU map.

Sofia - Bulgarian police used teargas and batons Wednesday to disperse a protest in downtown Sofia, arresting around 30 violent demonstrators, local media reported.

Several police were also injured in the clash, chief commissioner Pavlin Dimitrov said.

Demonstrators, apparently including hooligan football fans, previously hurled snowballs and bottles at the parliament building and a police cordon keeping them at distance from the legislature.

The riot police moved in with force reportedly after receiving a tip that a bomb was set to explode at the scene.

Sofia - Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev left Wednesday for a one-day trip to Moscow and Kiev and urgent talks about the Russian-Ukrainian gas row which has shoved much of the Balkans into a deep crisis.

In Moscow, Stanishev was due to meet both Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev and the management of the Russian Gazprom, his cabinet said in Sofia.

Stanishev would then fly to Kiev, for talks with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko and Premier Yulia Timoshenko.

Sofia - The Ukraine has begun delivering gas again to Moldavia and Bulgaria, in fulfilling a pledge Kiev had made, Bulgarian Economics and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said Saturday.

Dimitrov said he had received information from a centre in charge of monitoring gas distribution in the Balkan region about the resumption of gas deliveries, which are coming from Ukraine's own reserves.

Earlier, Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko in a telephone call with his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov had promised to supply gas from Ukraine's own reserves, with Kiev aiming to supply Bulgaria with 2.5 million cubic metres per day.

Belgrade/Sofia - Gas shortages triggered by the Russia- Ukraine row over payments have left tens of thousands of families in Serbia and Bulgaria without the ability to heat their homes at a time of freezing cold.

While most Serbian plants have switched or were in the process of switching from natural gas to oil, some - as in the cities of Novi Sad and Pancevo, servicing some
120,000 people - have shut down as gas supplies were exhausted, reports said.

Sofia - Hit hard by the Russia-Ukraine gas row, Bulgaria on Tuesday stepped up the pressure for permission to re-start its old nuclear reactors, shut down in 2006 amid European safety concerns.

"We must prepare without delay to re-start the third reactor at Kosloduy," President Georgi Parvanov said. Bulgaria shut down two 440-megawatt, Soviet-era reactors shortly before it joined the European Union in 2007, meeting Brussels' demands.

Two even older reactors were turned off in 2002.

Parvanov said the accession contract with the EU allows Bulgaria to revive the two newer reactors in case of a crisis.