A majority of Greeks wants President Clinton to face war crimes charges for his role in the Kosovo conflict, while just 14 per cent want President Slobodan Milosevic tried, an opinion poll showed yesterday.
The poll showed 69.7 per cent of Greeks want Mr Clinton tried and 35.2 per cent want the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, also charged over NATO's campaign of air strikes against Yugoslavia.
But only 14 per cent believe Mr Milosevic should face international sanctions for his role in the repression and expulsion of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population.
The poll was carried out by the ICAP Institute, which questioned a representative sample of 1,000 Greeks between April 29th and May 5th.
Around 13 per cent also want to see the NATO commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, tried for war crimes and 9.6 per cent the NATO Secretary General, Mr Javier Solana.
Nearly 85 per cent attributed the NATO operation to a US "show of force" and only 2.5 per cent saw it as a reaction to "ethnic cleansing".
The poll published in Greek newspapers yesterday confirmed the overwhelming opposition of Greeks - 99.5 per cent - to the NATO action in Yugoslavia, which began on March 24th.
The Greek press gives full coverage to NATO "atrocities" while glossing over the fate of the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees. Greece - a NATO member - enjoys good relations with Serbia and the majority of its people are Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Faced with massive opposition at home, the Greek government has called for an end to the air campaign and for priority to be given to a diplomatic push for peace.
Greece's ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) has gained ground on the conservative opposition two weeks before the June European elections, but a large number of Greeks are still undecided, two opinion polls showed.
A Metron Analysis poll published in the daily, Ta Nea, yesterday gave Pasok 29.4 per cent support and the opposition New Democracy 31.4 per cent. Some 36 per cent of voters said they had faith in Pasok to manage the economy best, compared to 24.3 per cent who thought New Democracy would do a better job.
Another poll, by pollsters Opinion and published in Eleftherotypia, said Pasok had 27.4 per cent support and New Democracy 29.5 per cent, with 11.6 per cent still undecided.