Failed bomb attack targets Greek minister

ATHENS, May 30 (Reuters) A powerful bomb targeting Greek Culture Minister George Voulgarakis exploded in central Athens today, wrecking cars but causing no injuries, police said.

The bomb, apparently remotely detonated, was aimed at the minister just as he was going to work. There was no claim of responsibility but police said it looked like the work of one of Greece's leftist groups.

''It went off just before he left for work,'' a police official said.

''It was really strong, it was aimed at Voulgarakis.'' Police said initial evidence showed 2-3 kg of dynamite were strapped to a bicycle seat near a car and set off from about 30 metres away, the official said.

Voulgarakis, 46, was at home at the time of the attack, which damaged nearby cars and shattered windows. The area was cordoned off and helicopters hovered overhead as bomb experts and sniffer dogs scoured the street for evidence.

''It was an attack against democracy. I have complete confidence that the Greek police will do their job,'' the minister told reporters as he left his home after the blast.

Voulgarakis had been public order minister until February and his move to the Culture Ministry during a government reshuffle was widely seen as a demotion due to his handling of a phone tapping scandal that rocked Greece for weeks.

The minister also faced claims by 28 Pakistani immigrants, who said they were abducted and tortured by Greek authorities at unknown locations after last year's London suicide bombings. He denied their story but prosecutors ordered an investigation.

Police said if a guerrilla group was behind the attack, the bombing might have been staged as a protest against Voulgarakis' handling of the Pakistani immigrants.

''HUGE BLAST'' Today's explosion sent debris flying into nearby streets and an empty school yard.

''It was a huge blast, it knocked me down,'' neighbour Thanassis Angelopoulos told Greek television. ''I saw the car being lifted up in the air and its doors flung wide open.'' The Greek government condemned the bombing.

''The attack targets democracy itself,'' government spokesman Theodore Roussopoulos told reporters. ''But our democracy is strong and not in danger from such challenges.'' Major bomb attacks have become a rarity in Greece since the leaders of the November 17 urban guerrilla group were captured and convicted before the 2004 Athens Olympics. The group killed 23 people in 27 years of drive-by shootings and precision bomb attacks.

Several small leftist and anarchist groups still hurl petrol bombs or stage makeshift gas canister bomb attacks against Greek and foreign targets, but their attacks usually cause no injuries and only minor damage.

Voulgarakis was also targeted in 2003, when he was an opposition conservative New Democracy party deputy. A gas canister bomb destroyed cars parked under his building and police had to evacuate his family.

Police said Voulgarakis was among top government officials seen as possible targets and that a bomb squad had conducted a daily check of his street shortly before the explosion.

''Orders were given to immediately step up controls at all the other possible targets,'' the police official said, adding that there were no warning calls ahead of the attack.

REUTERS SY HS1859