By Dina Kyriakidou
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's socialist opposition leader said the government had mishandled the fighting of fires that tore through Athens suburbs, destroyed thousands of hectares of forest and forced thousands to flee their homes.
"These fires must put an end to an inefficient state, which winks at lawlessness and illegality," socialist opposition leader George Papandreou said. "This fire was not inevitable, it could have been avoided had the lessons of 2007 been learned."
Likely to face voters early next year, the conservative government said very strong winds had made it difficult to fight fires in east Attica where swathes of forest and more than 150 homes were destroyed.
Media also criticised the government's handling of the fires, which have now been contained.
"If what we experienced in Attica is the best this government can do, then it is obvious we must urgently replace it," the liberal daily Ethnos said in its main editorial.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is clinging to a one-seat majority and the socialist opposition, which is ahead in opinion polls, has made clear it will force a snap poll in March when parliament votes for a new president.
"Fatal mistakes and shortcomings," read the front page headline of the conservative Kathimerini daily. It said authorities committed the same errors as in 2007 when the worst Greek blazes in living memory killed 65 people, mainly in the Peloponnese peninsula.
This year's fire started late on Friday in the village of Grammatiko, about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Athens, and spread quickly through the mountains of east Attica.
Greek, Italian and French water-drop planes, hundreds of fire-fighters and soldiers battled the flames, which raged for three days, devouring about 75,000 acres (30,000 hectares) of forest, farming land and olive groves.
Thousands fled after a state of emergency was declared in the area but many stayed behind to fight the flames with garden hoses and tree branches.
A public prosecutor has ordered an inquiry into whether arsonists started the blazes in an area where fires have in the past been set by land developers.
The government said on Tuesday it would help rebuild houses destroyed in the fire and support local farmers, vowing to restore the forests and take protection measures in future.
"We aim to secure those who lost their homes ... and to restore the environmental disaster," government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said.
He said illegally built homes would not receive any aid.
Political parties and the press said the lack of enforcement of strict zoning laws encouraged arson because villas have been built illegally in the middle of forests for decades.
A congested capital of nearly 5 million people, Athens has sprawled across the Attica region under an anarchic system that legalises buildings after they are illegally constructed.
