By Mark John

BRUSSELS, July 25 (Reuters) - Human rights advocates raised concerns on Wednesday over a pact between the European Union and Libya that led to the release of six foreign medics, and said the bloc must not reward Tripoli with full ties.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian-born doctor accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV were released on Tuesday in a deal offering financial support to the Libyan families as well as what Brussels called "a new era" in EU-Libyan relations.

Oil-rich Libya's new status was in full evidence on Wednesday as French President Nicolas Sarkozy jetted off for a trip aimed at deepening political and business ties, just a day after the medics' 8-year jail ordeal ended.

But celebrations were tempered by concern that the EU should not compromise its human rights credentials by easing pressure on Tripoli over alleged abuses such as mistreatment of detainees and suspects and the lack of a free media.

"We must not now reward Libya for the release of people that were detained in horrendous conditions for eight years," Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht said.

"Normalisation must be a long process in which Libya must first fulfil a series of criteria such as on human rights," he told Belgium's De Standaard newspaper.

He said he would have "a strong word" to say on the matter in the council of the bloc's 27 foreign ministers, which must now give the green light to Tuesday's accord.

Rights group Amnesty International said it would ask EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who signed the memorandum of understanding with Libya on behalf of the EU, to clarify how the accord addressed rights issues.

"What the EU needs to demonstrate is that ... it (the pact) does not hinder human rights concerns being put on the table and that rather it should be an increased opportunity to raise them," said David Nichols of Amnesty International's EU office.

"There is a big question mark on this at the moment."

"JUST ONE STEP"

European and Libyan officials explained the deal to their publics in markedly different terms.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said it would allow "full cooperation and partnership" while European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso spoke of an EU will to "further normalise" stalled ties.

"This is just one step in the process," said an EU official, noting that closer ties between the EU and Mediterranean states are systematically linked to progress on democracy and human rights under the so-called "Barcelona Process" launched in 1995.

Libya is not yet a member of that Euro-Mediterranean partnership but has observer status.

Nonetheless Tripoli can expect a rapid upgrading in its ties as it emerges from more than three decades of diplomatic isolation for what the West called its support of terrorism.

Aside from medical assistance and humanitarian support for the HIV children and their families, Tripoli was promised better access to the EU's rich markets for its exports and EU help in key sectors such as education.

Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch stressed that while the political deal which freed the medics was to be welcomed, it did not address the shortfalls in the Libyan judiciary system which they argue landed them in jail in the first place.

"We think it is important for the international community to engage with Libya," said Reed Brody, legal counsel at the Brussels office of Human Rights Watch.

"But we can't give it a blank cheque."

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