Transport and communications minister Georgi Peev held urgent talks with his Turkish counterpart, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, over the long lines of lorries at the Kapitan Andreevo border crossing, the ministry said.

The ministry said the two discussed how to find a quick fix and get traffic through the crossing back to normal. Peev spoke about the talks at a meeting with Bulgarian haulage firms.

Where it began: Transport minister Peev discusses with hauliers how to ease pressure at Kapitan Andreevo

On 16 October, Peev had already brought together hauliers and officials to ease the jams at the crossing. The aim then was to clear about 1,000 lorries a day. The border police and the customs agency said they had started work to improve how the crossing runs.

The situation is worst at Kapitan Andreevo. Between 8am and 6pm today, 418 lorries were cleared leaving Bulgaria. No lorries were recorded entering.

Over the past 24 hours, 1,304 lorries passed through the crossing: 279 coming in and 1,025 heading out to Turkey.

The ministry press office says the queues have several causes. The crossing is being rebuilt and upgraded, so some lanes are closed for now. Checks have also been tightened on the 90/180-day rule, which lets citizens of non-EU countries stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Turkish hauliers are protesting over the rule. Traffic also usually rises before Turkey's national day on 29 October.

"We are working in full coordination with the Turkish side and the relevant Bulgarian institutions to cut the lines of lorries at the border as fast as possible," the ministry said in a statement. Peev added that specific steps are being taken to improve checks and organisation so that traffic can move normally again.

Working meetings with institutions and industry groups will agree specific action to solve the problem for good.

"We are aware of the losses and difficulties the industry is facing," the minister said.