SOFIA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor jailed in Libya for allegedly infecting local children with HIV virus returned Bulgaria early Tuesday.

The six medics left Libya after an accord was reached with the European Union, which included measures to improve the medical care of children with AIDS in Libya and equip the hospital in the city of Benghazi.

A French governmental plane carrying the six Bulgarian medics landed at Sofia Airport at 9:49 a.m. local time (0649 GMT).

The first lady of France Cecilia Sarkozy and the European Union (EU) Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner were also on board.

They were welcomed by their families, as well as the country's president Georgi Parvanov, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, National Assembly Chairman Georgi Pirinski and Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin.

Parvanov pardoned the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, who had been granted Bulgarian citizenship, shortly after they arrived at Sofia Airport.

"Expressing his belief in the innocence of the medical workers, and in line with the powers bestowed on him by the Bulgarian constitution, the Bulgarian President issues a decree pardoning them," the president said in a statement, read out by Ivaylo Kalfin at the airport.

The six then attended a special news conference, but none of them made any brief remarks.

Parvanov thanked all European partners for their support on the issue. Ferrero-Waldner and the chief French presidential aide Claude Gueant commented on the issue as a result of collective efforts and new page of the bilateral relationship with Libya.

They also urged the EU to pay attention to the HIV-infected Libyan children and to guarantee their treatment.

The six are now transported to the Presidential Residence "Boyana", where they will get thorough medical exams and receive instructions for adapting to the life in Bulgaria.

The six medics, who had been under arrest since 1999, were sentenced to death for deliberately causing an HIV outbreak at a Benghazi hospital and infecting 426 children with the virus.

But Libya's Supreme Judiciary Council on last Tuesday commuted the death sentences against them to life imprisonment, which, under bilateral agreement signed in 1984 between Bulgaria and Libya, brought hopes for the medics to be transferred home.

In return, the international community, mainly led by the EU, the United States and Bulgaria, paid each family of the infected children 1 million U.S. dollars.

They were finally allowed to return home after a delegation, including Ferrero-Waldner and Claude Gueant, visited Tripoli on Sunday to negotiate their release.

"The French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, and the President of the European Commission, Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, welcome the agreement that has at last allowed this release and the return to Bulgaria of the nurses held for more than eight years, and of the Palestinian doctor," said a statement issued by the French presidency.

Sarkozy and Barroso welcomed Libya's "humanitarian" gesture, as well as "the implementation of an improved framework to ensure the care dispensed to the children victim of AIDS in Libya," the statement said.

They also expressed gratitude to the Gulf state of Qatar for helping mediate the agreement.