Athens - Greek coastguards Sunday rounded up 101 illegal immigrants in a coordinated operation in the eastern Aegean, officials said.

The migrants, mainly from Afghanistan and Iraq, were dropped on the tourist island of Samos, the island of Farmakonisis and two rocky outcrops by a flotilla of small boats from Turkey, coastguard officials said.

The officers also detained a 30-year-old Turk suspected of smuggling 10 of the immigrants into Greece, state television reported.

People smugglers regularly use the Aegean sea route to transport their human cargoes to Europe.

Athens - Greece's finance ministry on Friday said that it will guarantee all bank deposits, assuring nervous savers across the southern Mediterranean country that their banks were safe.

National Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis said the government was following the Irish lead and taking steps to increase protection afforded to borrowers defaulting on loan payments as higher lending rates squeeze disposable incomes.

"The government is approaching the issue with sensitivity and promoting every feasible measure to help people in a difficult position due to adverse international conditions," he said.

Nicosia - Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias has suggested a series of proposals towards further reconciliation of the Greek and Turkish parts of the divided Mediterranean island.

Among the proposals broadcast on Cypriot television Wednesday morning was the cancellation of the annual autumn military exercises by the National Guard in the Greek Cypriot south of the island and the Turkish Army in the north.

"I also propose a full demilitarization of the Old City of Nicosia and the setting up of a demilitarized zone," Christofias said in a speech to the Council of Europe shown on television.

Athens  - Pirates captured a tanker off the coast of Somalia, a Greek shipping company reported Saturday.

According to the Greek coastguard, 19 Romanian sailors were aboard the tanker Genious which was sailing under a Liberian flag.

The attack was reported to the shipping company by the ship's captain by radio shortly before the pirates boarded the vessel. The pirates fired a number shots into the air to bring the ship to a halt.

Athens - Border traffic tailbacks began easing Friday after Greek customs officials ended a strike begun on Monday in protest at planned salary cutbacks.

Athens- Hundreds of lorries remained stuck in long queues at customs stations across Greece on Tuesday as officials continued an open-ended strike, forcing the near-closure of all border stations, ports and airports throughout the country.

The strike, which began on Monday in protest against the government's plans for severe salary cutbacks for civil servants, caused serious disruptions in food and fuel supplies along the northern Greek border with Albania, Romania and Bulgaria.