Court ruling halts Athens project

Another setback was delivered yesterday to Athens' long-delayed Olympic preparations after a court ruled against the construction of a media village.

The decision by the Council of State came as the Greek Premier, Costas Simitis, acknowledged that Greece has had to work hard to regain the trust of the International Olympic Committee ahead of next year's games. An IOC Coordination Committee inspected Athens' preparations last week and found that although progress has been made, no time remains for any more delays.

The court decision ordered an immediate stop to the building of a village to house about 4,000 media representatives. Construction had already begun on the project, located near the main Olympic stadium complex in the northern suburb of Maroussi.

"There are contingency plans. Our goal is to complete all the plans exactly as they have started," said the culture minister, Evangelos Venizelos. He did not say what those contingency plans were.

The village is one of five around Athens that will house the 20,000 journalists who will cover the Olympics. It is a private venture being built by a development company.

The Council of State is Greece's highest administrative court and rules on the constitutionality of legislation. It found that the legislation used to zone the land was unconstitutional.

Preparations for the Athens Olympics have been plagued by years of construction delay and have resulted in numerous warnings from the IOC. The last came in February.

The delayed projects include a main sports complex at Athens' former Hellenikon airport and the Karaeskaki football stadium. "We have to continually face issues which crop up, but we also have the method and the decisiveness to deal with these problems," Venizelos said.