Greece’s Olympic Committee on Thursday warned that serious delays in the reforestation of Ancient Olympia five months after a swathe of destructive wildfires threaten to undermine the Olympic flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Games torch relay in March.

“Unless it drastically improves in the coming period, (Olympia’s) present image will constitute global defamation for Greece,” the Greek Olympic Committee (HOC) said in a statement.

The committee added that the memorial to French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, is in a particularly “sad state” and accused government officials of negligence.

A 12-day inferno in August caused extensive damage to the Olympic Academy grove where Coubertin’s heart is buried, and also burned trees behind the Olympia archaeological museum and the slope of the ancient stadium where thousands attend the lighting ceremony for each Games every two years.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis had personally pledged in September that the Beijing Games ceremony on March 25 would be held “in a setting worthy of the history and symbolism of the site”.

But the Greek culture ministry which heads the reforestation works is currently in turmoil after its number two official, general secretary Christos Zachopoulos, tried to commit suicide last month over a blackmail case.

The case has strongly embarrassed the government which insists the incident was linked to Zachopoulos’ private life, but an investigation has begun into possible abuse of ministry powers over antiquities policy or fund management.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press.