Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor could face the firing squad if a Libyan court convicts them tomorrow on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS.

Concluding a retrial regarded by the outside world as a test of justice in Libya, the court will make a decision that, either way, is likely to have repercussions on the north African country?s gradual rapprochement with the West.

The six are accused of intentionally infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi in the late 1990s. The prosecution has demanded the death penalty.

?We are fully confident that the accused group is criminal and will be convicted,? Ramadan Faitori, a spokesman for the HIV-infected children?s families, told Reuters.

Defence lawyer Othman Bizanti told Reuters: ?A just verdict would represent the real and legal truth, which we presented to the court in our pleading.? The medics were convicted in a 2004 trial and sentenced to death by firing squad. But the supreme court quashed the ruling last year and ordered the case be returned to a lower court.

Rights groups the world over have rallied to the medics? defence to stop what they say may be a miscarriage of justice.

But in Benghazi, where more than 50 of the infected children have died, there is profound public anger against the nurses and international efforts to free them.

Media for guilty verdict

State-controlled media want a guilty verdict for the six, who have been in detention since 1999.

?We say to everyone: Our children?s blood is precious,? Aljamahirya newspaper wrote. Al-Shams newspaper wrote: ?It?s very difficult to understand the stance of those in solidarity with the accused.?

?Who deserves greater reason for solidarity ? The children who are dying without having committed any offence, or those in white coats who distributed death and wiped the smile from the lips of hundreds of families??

US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, who helped negotiate a full resumption of diplomatic relations between the US and Libya, arrived in Tripoli on Friday and discussed ?issues which hinder improvements in relations? with Libyan officials. Welch has previously said a way should be found for the nurses to return home.

The case has hampered Tripoli?s process of rapprochement with the West. But analysts say freeing the defendants would put the focus on alleged negligence and poor hygiene in Libyan hospitals, which western scientists say are the real culprits in the case.

Bizanti has said that in 1997 ? a year before the nurses came to Libya ? about 207 cases of HIV infection had been found in Benghazi that had not resulted in any legal proceedings. He has questioned why authorities have not followed them up. In 2005 a Libyan court acquitted nine policemen and a doctor of torturing the medics.

Washington backs Bulgaria and the European Union in saying the medics are innocent. Libya has proposed compensation which it says would open a way for a pardon and the medics? release. Sofia and its allies reject that proposal.

Salah SARRAR

CHRONOLOGY

Libya HIV trial of Bulgarian medics

Feb. 1999 - Nineteen Bulgarian medical workers in Libya are detained in investigation into how children in a Benghazi hospital became infected with HIV. Thirteen are later freed.

Feb. 2000 - Trial opens for six Bulgarians, a Palestinian doctor and nine Libyans accused of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV-contaminated blood products. Libyan defendants are charged w<ith negligence.

Sept. 3, 2003 - French doctor Luc Montagnier testifies the epidemic broke out a year before the arrival of the Bulgarians.

Sept. 8 - Libyan prosecutors demand death sentences for the six Bulgarians and the Palestinian, and demand nine Libyan officers charged with torturing the medics be tried separately.

May 6, 2004 - Libyan court sentences five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor to death for deliberately infecting the 426 children. The Bulgarian doctor is acquitted.

June 7, 2005 - A Tripoli court acquits nine Libyan policemen and a doctor of torturing the nurses.

Dec 25 - Supreme Court scraps death sentences, sends the case back to a lower court for retrial.

Jan 21, 2006 - Families demand total of 4.4 billion euros from donors to end the standoff.

July 4 - During retrial, defendants again deny charges.

Dec 6 - International scientists who rebuilt the history of the virus from samples from the children show the HIV subtype began infecting patients before the foreign medics arrived.