TRIPOLI (AFP) - Lawyers for five Bulgarian nurses on trial with a Palestinian doctor for infecting children with the AIDS virus have asked for more time to call defence witnesses at a hearing in the Libyan capital.

Attorney Othman al-Bizanti asked the judge to give him the necessary time to fly in the 26 witnesses whom the defence intend to call from the eastern city of Benghazi where the children were infected.

The city is more than 1,000 kilometres (650 miles) from Tripoli.

Judge Mahmud al-Huweissa agreed Tuesday to adjourn the trial to July 4 and to hold fortnightly rather than weekly hearings as he had ordered when the trial opened on June 13.

Huweissa had said he was making the order "because this case has dragged on too long", in a move welcomed by Sofia.

The six hospital staff have been in custody since 1999 and judges have so far rejected all defence applications for bail.

The six, who all insist they are innocent, were condemned to death in May 2004 after an initial trial in Benghazi but the supreme court ordered a retrial following an appeal last December.

They are accused of infecting 426 children with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus of whom 52 have since died of full-blown Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

The defence insists the infections were the result of poor hygiene in the hospital and not the responsibility of the six staff.

A dozen relatives gathered outside a security cordon around the Tripoli courthouse Tuesday to demand justice for the infected children.