Bulgaria today started to destroy its Soviet-made missiles as part of entry obligations for the NATO alliance into which it hopes to be invited later this year.
The government of Mr Simeon Saxe-Coburg, the ex-king who won elections in June 2001 and set joining NATO and the European Union as top priorities, has vowed to destroy the whole arsenal of some 100 SS-23, Scud and Frog missiles by the end of October.
The first warhead of an SS-23 missile was detonated at a firing range near the southern village of Zmeyovo. Government and military officials and reporters watched the blast from some five kilometres (three miles) away.
Under a deal signed with Sofia in May, Washington agreed to help Bulgaria dismantle its surface-to-surface missiles and grant it an undisclosed compensation for the lost weaponry.
Left out of the first round of NATO enlargement in 1999, Bulgaria and neighbouring Romania hope to be invited to join at a summit in Prague in November.
Romania and Bulgaria, which have joined forces to try to gain entry, say their membership will boost stability in a region still recovering from a decade of wars in former Yugoslavia.