Firefighters were battling one remaining major blaze in southern Greece yesterday, after managing to bring under control hundreds of others that for one week ravaged large parts of the country and killed at least 64 people.

Fears remained, however, that a new heat wave accompanied by strong winds that were expected over the weekend could feed smaller fires or rekindle those that smoldered around Greece.

According to the fire department, the blaze outside of Karytaina, just west of the town of Andritsena in the southern Peloponnese peninsula, was being fought by at least four planes and dozens of fire trucks. At least five villages in the area were evacuated late Wednesday.

In other parts of the Peloponnese, where 57 of the deaths were recorded, all the fronts were contained and firefighters - backed by more than 20 water-dropping aircraft - were extinguishing lingering blazes.

Their success was attributed in part to lower temperatures and a drop in the winds, which often blew with the force of a gale. But the weather service forecast a new heatwave at the end of the week.

In the tiny village of Kato Kotyli, 5 kilometers east of Karytaina, a handful of residents stayed behind overnight, hosing down their houses.

With most fires seemingly under control, the conservative government has focused on a vast relief effort, less than three weeks before national elections on September 16.

Thousands of people again lined up outside banks to receive emergency aid, and the government said 7,500 people received €24 million (US$33 million) on Wednesday, the first day the funds were handed out.

(China Daily via agencies August 31, 2007)