Greece rethinks Eurofighter

2005-04-09 17:23

Athens - Greece is reconsidering a project by the former Socialist government to buy 60 Eurofighter jets for its air force, the defence ministry said here on Saturday.

As both the Greek prime minister and defence minister are due to visit the United States in the coming weeks the press here is speculating the government may choose the US F-16 instead.

"The government has so far taken no decision concerning the choice of company from which to buy the fourth generation jets. All options remain open," defence ministry spokesperson Stephanos Guikas told reporters.

"A decision on the matter of our arms programme for the 2006-2010 period will be taken in the coming months," he added.

The former Socialist government's decision to buy 60 Eurofighter jets from the European air and space consortium EADS was frozen when the conservative New Democracy party won a general election in March 2004.

Greek Defence Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos is to visit Washington in late April for what Guikas said would be a "political-military meeting for talks on bilateral relations between NATO and Greece".

Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis will visit the US in late May.

- AFP