Israeli President Shimon Peres said Wednesday in Sofia that his country needed to talk with Palestinian authorities and praised Bulgaria as a possible mediator.
"There is no more appropriate place for that (talks) than Bulgaria," he said after meeting his host, President Georgi Parvanov.
Bulgaria can play an "important role" in the Middle East peace talks, Peres said.
He hinted that Bulgaria may have already started mediating by saying that his visit to Sofia a month after the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was there was "no coincidence."
Parvanov voiced strong support for the Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Bulgaria, which enjoys good ties both with Israel and the Palestinians, has unofficially signalled interest to mediate the Middle East peace process.
Though it sided with Germany in World War II, Bulgaria won Israel's friendship by refusing to hand over some 50,000 Jews for transportation to death camps.
The Balkan country developed ties with the Palestinians during the decades of Communist rule, when thousands of Palestinians came to Bulgaria to study, dpa reported.
Peres was set to travel to Romania after his visit to Bulgaria.