Official denies involvement in wiretap scandal in Greece

Greece's secret service chief denied any illegal involvement in a wiretapping scandal that targeted Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis and other senior officials, an Associated Press report said.

The report said the illegal surveillance targeted Caramanlis and senior state security officials from just before the August 2004 Olympic Games until March 2005.

"There is nothing in the actions of the National Intelligence Agency that could be considered in breach of the Constitution and the law," Ioannis Korandis, quoted by Associated Press, said.

Korandis said the agency was fully cooperating with an investigation, but did not comment on the secret service's role in authorized wiretaps.

The report further said the weekly To Thema newspaper named six NIS employees who, in cooperation with a US embassy official in Athens, were allegedly involved in the eavesdropping, which targeted mobile phones used by customers of telecom giant Vodafone.