Greece rejects demand for wiretaps probe

Greece's conservative-led parliament rejected an opposition demand to set up a special inquiry into wiretapping scandal that involved the illegal monitoring of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, an Associated Press report said.

The Associated Press report said the demand by the main opposition Socialists was rejected by 157 votes to 123, with 20 deputies absent.

Wiretappers targeted more than 100 cell phone users, including Karamanlis as well as senior military officers, human rights activists and journalists, from shortly before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens until March 2005, the report said.

The government said a parliamentary investigation would duplicate the work of an ongoing judicial inquiry. But the Socialists argued the step was necessary because the wiretappers had still not been discovered.

Last month, a powerful privacy committee fined the Greek subsidiary of cell phone operator Vodafone 76 million euros ($100 million) for failing to adequately protect its network from the unknown hackers, the report said.