The forest fires that raged in Portugal from May to October have caused 500 million euros (600 million US dollars) worth of damage, an Agriculture Ministry official said on Friday.

Around 300,000 hectares of trees were burned in the Summer blazes, but the total area of damage was less than the 430,000 hectares destroyed in 2003, Maria do Loreto Monteiro, head of forest resource at the Portuguese ministry said.

However, the fires had destroyed valuable trees, causing a damage this year more severe than two years ago. "Old and well-looked after areas were the ones that had been burned," she said.

Nevertheless, the total damage is still not high enough to trigger the Solidarity Fund, an emergency fund which begins to pay out if damages exceed 912 million dollars.

It was estimated that the average economic loss caused by the fires stood at over 3,000 euros (3,600 US dollars) per hectare this year. The central region of Coimbra, which registered 96 million dollars worth of losses, took the worst hit.

Source: Xinhua