ATHENS, Dec 11: Concerns over the cost of next year’s Athens Olympics and security at the Games topped a list of problems Greeks associated with the event, according to a nationwide poll published on Thursday.

While officials have said the total cost of next year’s Olympics was fixed at 4.6 billion euros ($5.60 billion), the MRB poll showed 70 per cent of Greeks are worried about costs spiralling.

The Sept 11 attacks on the US in 2001, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and recent bombings in neighbouring Turkey have driven security costs alone to rise by about 25 per cent to 650 million euros.

Officials have not ruled out further budget hikes. The government’s top Olympics official, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said two months ago an increase of about 10 per cent due to further security concerns could well be possible.

More than half of Greeks see security as a major problem and only 22 per cent think everything will go smoothly during the 17 days next August.

Greece has drawn up the biggest security plans in the history of the Games with 45,000 security staff on duty, three times as many as in the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

The poll, conducted in the last two weeks of November, was based on a nationwide sample of 2,000 people.—Reuters