Greek security forces tested their ability to handle an assassination attempt on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an attack on a cruise ship and a plague outbreak in the latest Olympic Games security drill, a leading newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The drill, codenamed "Olympic Guardian II", was a tabletop exercise that ran for three days last week, testing response times and coordination in tackling possible disasters during the Games in August, the daily To Vima said.
The U.S.-led drill covered 77 scenarios, among them a poisoning attempt on Games chief Gianna Angelopoulos, a rocket attack on an Air France plane, a suspected anthrax attack and riots and looting on the capital's streets, it said.
"The attackers have a series of demands including freeing the prisoners of Guantanamo, for (U.S. President George) Bush to admit the crimes of the United States against Islam and to start the withdrawal of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan," the paper said, quoting official documents listing "terrorist" demands.
"The scenarios of the drill include...the flow of information regarding the assassination of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is in Athens at the time," it added.
There was no immediate comment on the report from Greek authorities or Olympic Games organisers.
Athens, hosting the first summer Olympics since the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, is spending a record one billion euros ($1.20 billion) on security, more than three times the amount spent on the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
It has set up a seven-nation Olympic security group comprising Germany, Spain, Australia, the United States, Britain, Israel and France, all of which took part in last week's drill, To Vima said.
NATO has agreed to provide air and sea patrols during the August 13-29 Games.
Organisers will use seven luxury liners at the port of Piraeus as floating hotels, and To Vima said that "an Islamist attack on the cruise ship Queen Mary II" had been a key feature of the security exercise.
Greek forces have in the past year run drills on hostage situations, ferry and plane hijackings and nuclear, chemical and biological attacks.
