Greek government in blackmail scandal

Athens, Greece: Opposition parties have attacked Greece's conservative government over what newspapers call the "Sex, lies and DVDs" scandal concerning the possible blackmail of a former senior culture ministry official.

Just four months after its re-election on pledges to fight corruption, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has seen some of his closest aides dragged into the affair and has been called on to answer questions in parliament.

"Mr. Karamanlis is responsible for the country's decay, he leads a government that has produced only a bagful of scandals," Socialist opposition leader George Papandreou told the Sunday Eleftherotypia newspaper.

The scandal broke after former culture ministry general secretary Christos Zachopoulos resigned last month and then tried to kill himself, apparently because he was being blackmailed.

Zachopoulos, 54, who is still in hospital, was close to Karamanlis and had extensive financial and political powers at the ministry responsible for Greece's antiquities.

Socialist deputies now want to review several contracts he approved, as well as decisions to allow construction on or near archaeological sites.

The government has said only that the issue is in the hands of Greek justice, but government officials speaking on condition of anonymity stressed personal tragedy rather than political scandal.

The head of Karamanlis' press office, Yannis Andrianos, has given prosecutors a DVD which police say shows intimate moments between Zachopoulos and a 35-year-old female assistant.

The woman was arrested, charged with blackmail and is being held pending trial.