Greece is to start its one-billion-euro (1.2 billion US dollars) Olympic security plan on July 1.

Thousands of 7,000 guards have been posted at 35 Olympic venues in Athens and four other cities and at vital installations such as power stations, waterworks and fuel depots.

Greece's armed forces were also stepping up border patrols as well as sea and air surveillance.

Hundreds of cameras have already been installed around the city. And a zeppelin fitted with high-resolution cameras will cruise the Athens sky to keep watch over the Games.

Security preparations are in full gear at the Athens port of Piraeus, where a dozen floating hotels will be berthed during the Olympics.

A fence equipped with sensors is being erected and sonar screening of the harbor is being tested.

Greece expects to spend a record billion euros on Olympic security deploying 70,000 personnel.

NATO will provide surveillance planes, maritime patrols and experts in weapons of mass destruction to safeguard the first summer Games since the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Source: Xinhua