Athens, July 22 (Reuters): Greece vowed today no “Texas sheriffs”, “Rambos” or foreign troops would patrol its streets during next month’s Athens Olympics.

In a new bid to calm a furore about whether foreign guards could be armed during the first summer Games since the September 11, 2001, attacks on US, public order minister George Voulgarakis said Olympic security was exclusively a Greek responsibility.

The row erupted after yesterday’s New York Times report, denied by both Greece and the US, that Athens would turn a blind eye to foreign security staff carrying weapons to guard their athletes during the August 13 to 29 event, the world’s biggest sporting gathering. “There will be no foreign army on the streets, no American army, no French army, no nothing,” Voulgarakis told a raucous session of parliament.

Greek newspapers gleefully seized on the New York Times report as a sign the country’s fiercely guarded independence, won after centuries of occupation by the Ottoman Turks, would be trampled on in the name of the Olympics. “Greece looks the other way while Texas sheriffs come to town,” Ta Nea newspaper said.

“500 Rambos will come for the Games,” the Ethnos newspaper said. “Gunfight over armed guards,” the Eleftherotypia newspaper thundered. “It is we who are responsible (for Games security), politically and organisationally,” Voulgarakis said.

Nato member Greece has set up a seven-nation advisory group to help in security plans and has called on the alliance for assistance in air and sea patrols as well as for a potential nuclear, chemical or biological attack. “We are responsible for the Games security ... but we do have some shortcomings such as to prepare against a biochemical war. This is what we told Nato and the other nations,” Voulgarakis said.

He said Greece’s initial decision to have no armed guards inside sports venues stood. “As a consequence sports teams cannot have (foreign) armed escorts,” he said. Greece has drawn up the most expensive ever Games security plan, costing over 1 billion euros. ($1.23 billion).