Bombs rock Athens

Police search for clues outside an American bank that was bombed Sunday

At least four bombs exploded in the suburbs of the Greek capital, Athens, on Sunday.

The far-left group Revolutionary Nuclei claimed responsibility for the blasts, which targeted branches of the US bank Citibank, the UK bank Barclay's and the studio of a Greek-American sculptor.

Revolutionary Nuclei, also known as Revolutionary Cells and ELA, is believed to have been behind a 1998 bombing of the Hotel Intercontinental in Athens which killed one person and wounded another.

The attack comes less than six months after the murder of the British military attache Stephen Saunders in Athens, apparently by the terrorist group November 17.

'Weak link'

Greece has come under heavy criticism for its failure to rein in terrorist activity.

The United States has described Greece as "one of the weakest links in Europe's efforts against terrorism."

Brigadier Saunders was killed in June

The US has been critical of Greece's failure to apprehend a single member of November 17, despite its 25-year campaign of bombings and assassinations.

Such criticism has led to concern about whether Greek security will be good enough for the country to host the Olympics in 2004 as planned.

New measures

Following the murder of Brigadier Saunders, the Greek Government considered a range of tough new measures to deal with terrorism and reassure the international community that it is on top of the problem.

The measures include a new witness protection programme, and non-jury trials for terrorist suspects to deal with the problem of intimidation.

After much delay, Greece and the United States recently signed a memorandum of co-operation between the two countries' police forces.

But a UK Foreign Office spokesman pointed out that new legislation would not immediately solve the problem.

"It's not a case of doing something that turns off the tap", the spokesman told BBC News Online.

"It's a question of improving training, improving capabilities, and keeping up the effort," he said.