Eurozone member Greece is facing a massive budget deficit as it tries to absorb the cost of the Olympic Games.
The expected €7bn burden means the national deficit is set to hit 5.3% in 2004, said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
Greece is attempting to justify part of this deficit as forgivable exceptional spending for the Olympics amid heated debate across the European Union over what exactly constitutes such expenditure.
EU ministers did not agree last Friday on a European Commission proposal to loosen the definition of "exceptional circumstances" in which governments can breach a 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) limit prescribed by the 12-state eurozone's Stability and Growth Pact.
The Games is set to be the most expensive in the modern Olympics' 100-year history with heightened fears following 9/11 meaning that five times as much was spent on security than at Sydney in 2000.
