Greece counts cost of freeze

ATHENS, Greece -- Greece remains in the grip of its coldest weather since the early 1960s.

Although there were signs on Monday that the cold snap may be nearing an end, many villages remain cut off by ice and snow drifts and a state of emergency has been declared in certain areas.

The Greek government met to estimate the damage to property and crops caused by heavy snowfalls and low temperatures in the past four days.

"This situation was unexpected. This was the worst weather in about 40 years," Prime Minister Costas Simitis said after Monday's meeting.

The severe weather began on Friday and wrapped central and southern Greece in a blanket of snow.

Snow, as much as two metres (six feet) deep in some areas, caused power cuts across southern Greece and the northern Athens suburbs, where troops were called in to clear roads.

One elderly woman was found dead in a suburb of Athens after being exposed to the freezing conditions which have stretched as far south as Crete.

Meteorologists said on Sunday that the icy blast was the worst to hit Greece since 1963.

Temperatures in the northern part of the country dropped to as low as -19C (-2F).

Roads were closed, flights in and out of Athens international airport were cancelled and hundreds of villages across the country were cut off.

Orange trees in the northeastern Peloponnese froze, and some 15 percent of Crete's olive trees were damaged by freezing temperatures, officials said.

The storm, which also swept across the capital for more then two days, forced the government to declare a state of emergency in Attica and two neighbouring regions.

Simitis said state services had responded well to the emergency but there was room for improvement.

"There's still a lot to be done. The system could have worked better ... we need to improve prevention," he said.

Hundreds of people were stranded inside their cars on the country's main highway for more than 24 hours as rescue workers battled blizzards to clear the snow.

But Simitis said there was also a positive side to the storm which ended an extended dry spell.

"The snowfall will allow us to deal better with the issue of drought," he said.

The snowfall and freezing temperatures were part of a rare winter storm affecting many parts of the southern Balkans.

Four people froze to death in Turkey and seven were missing over the weekend as heavy snowfall paralysed the country.