ATHENS, Aug 3 (AFP) - Greece's entire armed forces are on a virtual war footing 10 days before the opening of the summer Olympic Games in Athens, the first since the September 11 attacks that changed the world.
Tensions in Iraq and the Middle East have sparked fears that Islamic extremists are planning a major attack on the August 13-29 Games and prompted Greece to lay on the biggest security operation in Olympic history with a 1.2 billion euro budget.
"Security has acquired a primary role since the tragic incidents of September 11, 2001 and the rise in (terror) threats," armed forces chief Yiorgos Antonakopoulos told a news conference on Tuesday.
Almost every member of Greece's armed forces -- one of the largest in NATO -- will be directly or indirectly involved in ensuring the safety of the Games and protecting the thousands of athletes, officials, journalists and spectators at the sporting extravaganza.
"Three thousand years after the ancient Olympics, which were games of celebration and peace, humanity is forced to take strict measures (to protect against attack)," lamented the Greek minister in charge of the event, Fanni Palli-Petralia.
Greece called on NATO for extra help after the March railway bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people in the worst such attack in Europe since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in Scotland.
The transatlantic alliance is providing AWACS air surveillance planes, as well as its Mediterranean fleet and a biochemical and nuclear warfare unit and will keep a 400-strong emergency evacuation force on standby outside Greek borders.
More than 50,000 Greek servicemen and 2,400 officers have been drafted in for the security operation codenamed "Ifitos" after the Greek king who founded the ancient Olympics, said the lieutenant general of Greece's joint chiefs of staff Vassilis Yiannopoulos.
Around 15,000 troops will guard the Olympic venues, vital installations and tourist sites in Athens as well as in another four cities hosting the football tournament.
The rest will be on duty in airfields and on war vessels which have been out since Monday, patrolling the country's extended sea frontiers in search for rogue boats possibly carrying foreign extremists.
Greece is also deploying anti-aircraft Patriot missiles to enforce a shoot-down policy against rogue planes entering the Greek capital's airspace, echoing similar action in the 1996 Atlanta summer Olympics and the 2002 Salt Lake City winter Games.
Athens airport -- expected to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors during the Games, is being protected by 1,000 police officers in addition to the airport's own 700 non-armed security guards.
Since winning the 2004 Games back in 1997, Greece has had to increase dramatically its security budget -- from an initial 600 million euros -- and the number of troops involved.
"Initial plans foresaw the mobilisation of 7,000 men and women -- this number jumped to 55,000, excluding international participation," Antonakopoulos said.
In all, a total of 70,000 people, almost seven times the ratio of participating athletes, will be involved in the Games's security planning, including military personnel, policemen, coastguards and firemen.