SOFIA, September 15, 2008 (AFP) - Denmark's Prince Frederik and his wife Princess Mary were welcomed Monday in Sofia by Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov, at the start of a three-day visit to Bulgaria.

The couple, who had been invited by the president, lunched with Parvanov and were to meet parliament president Georgy Pirinski in the afternoon.

A guards ceremony at the National History Museum and a visit to the capital's Alexander Nevski Cathedral, Bulgaria's largest Orthodox church, were also on the programme.

Prince Frederik, the heir to the Danish throne, and Princess Mary were to travel on Tuesday to Plovdiv, south east of Sofia, and then to the Troian mountainous region in central Bulgaria on Wednesday, to visit an ethnology exposition and an Orthodox monastery.