03 August 2004	Tuesday	16 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

ATHENS, Aug 2: Most Greeks now believe that this month's Athens Olympics will be the best ever, a nation wide poll showed on Monday.

The number of Greeks who think their country will stage the most successful Games in their modern 108-year history has steadily increased since 2001, the poll conducted by the Focus research centre in July said.

For the first time in three years more than half of those asked said the August 13-29 Games would be better than any previously staged, compared to 45 percent a month ago and 38 percent a year and a half ago.

A total of 88 percent of those polled said the Games would as good as previous Olympics or better. "There is a significant acceleration of "optimism" as the Games approach which makes more than half of the Greek population expect that the Athens Olympics will be better and more impressive than any previous ones," the centre said in a statement.

The last Games in Sydney four years ago were praised as the best staged since the inception of modern-day Olympics in 1896. Preparations for the Athens Games have been marred by delays, in-fighting and frenetic last-minute efforts to complete projects on time.

The poll also noted a sharp rise in Greeks' confidence that the Games would be safe, with 60 percent saying Athens was ready to stage secure Olympics. A total of 94 percent said "it was likely or fairly likely" that the Games would be secure.

Greece is spending a record 1.0 billion euros ($1.21 billion) on security for the first summer Olympics since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. -Reuters