Athens  - Greek efforts to introduce a land register prompted widespread chaos in registration offices across the country Wednesday as owners were queuing up to seven hours in packed offices to have their properties listed.

The new law, under which resident owners have to register their houses and apartments by September 30, and foreign owners by December 30, has created a bureaucratic bottleneck for thousands of owners as well as administrative clerks tasked with processing their applications.

"There is absolute chaos. We are swamped. People here are outraged and rightly so," said an official in Athens where only four registration offices are available for a total of four million properties.

Foreigners resident in Greece were also furious: "I don't believe it. We have been waiting for six hours in hot temperatures to register our small holiday flat and we have to pay 70 euros in fees," German national Marianne Jordan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"I have the impression that I don't live in the European Union but in the Ottoman Empire," an older resident commented.

Greece and Albania are the only countries in Europe which do not hold a land register. The EU has been pushing Athens for years to introduce a register. The new law comes almost 178 years after Greek independence. (dpa)