Athens - Greece's government called off the latest tender process for Olympic Airlines after bids submitted by interested buyers were found to be too low, reports said Thursday.

"The bids that were submitted do not meet our demands," Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis said, adding, "We are addressing an open proposal to Greek business groups for the sale of Olympic through immediate negotiations."

The government has spent years seeking out private investors to take over the debt-riddled airline, but the process has been complicated by the European Commission's demand that the company repay unlawfully distributed state aid.

The latest attempt to privatize the airline was in September when the government launched a tender to split the loss-making airline into three parts and to sell each of them off.

Hatzidakis had then said the government hoped to complete the sale by the start of 2009. It was the fifth effort by the government to sell the airline which has reported losses of 450 million euros a year.

At the time, the government said Iberia, Spain's largest airline, Qatar Airways, MyAir, Italy's low-cost airline company, Sky Europe, a low-cost airline company operating in central Europe, SkyOne, a US charter company and Fouad al-Ghanim Group, a Kuwait group in charge of Gainjet had expressed initial interest in the airline.

Meanwhile five companies, including Goldair and Swissport, the company controlling ground operations at Greek airports, had expressed interest in Olympics' ground handling. (dpa)