Athens- Fires in Greece were for the most part under control Saturday despite temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius throughout the south, according to dpa.
EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso arrived to assess the situation and flew over the badly-affected areas on the Peloponnese in a helicopter together with Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis.
"The Greek people should know that they are not alone. Europe stands by them," said Barroso after the inspection.
"Reconstruction must begin soon. The EU will take every possible measure to help Greece," said Barroso, adding: "We are standing by you."
Both politicians stressed the unrivalled mobilisation of equipment and personnel by most European states and those in the Mediterranean region to help Greece. The amount of aid to be extended to Greece will be decided on soon in Brussels although sums of 200 million euros (273 million dollars) in immediate aid have been set aside and a further 400 million could be paid into an EU solidarity fund by October, said European Regional
Affairs Commissioner Danuta Huebner.
Efforts to extinguish the smouldering fires were still under way in almost all regions across the Peloponnes peninsula and fires are flaring up again in many places. Extinguishing the fires was hardest in the mountainous Arcadia province, north-west of Megalopolis, and on Mount Parnon on the east of the peninsula.
Around 20 aircraft and 15 helicopters have been deployed to that area in order to bring two still-flaring fires under control. Five houses had burnt to the ground a day earlier in Sarakiniko in Arcadia, but no-one was injured.
Since the first fires broke out in Greece seven days ago, 64 people have died, at least 184,000 hectares of land have been destroyed, and an estimated 1.7 billion euros worth of damage has been caused, according to provisional Greek government estimates.