Greek Wiretaps Probe Summons Senior Ericsson Official

ATHENS (AP)--A parliament committee probing the wiretapping of Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis and top officials during the Athens Olympics summoned a senior Ericsson (ERICY) executive Friday to testify.

The committee said Ericsson's Greek Chief Executive Bill Zikou would testify Wednesday.

Committee chairman Anastassios Karamarios also announced a decision to summon a representative from Ericsson headquarters in Sweden at an unspecified date, as well as a senior Caramanlis aide.

The Swedish telecoms equipment maker has denied any involvement in the wiretapping, which targeted around 100 Vodafone (VOD) cell phone subscribers -including Cabinet ministers and top military and police officials - from just before the August 2004 Games until March 2005.

Ericsson manufactured Vodafone's digital centers in Greece. Secretly installed software was used to divert to cell phones using elusive pay-as-you-go services, the government has said.

Ericsson technicians discovered the hidden software after Greek mobile phone users reported problems with text messages.

"Ericsson had no involvement whatsoever in the creation, introduction and use of the illegal software in Vodafone's network," Ericsson Greece said in a statement late Thursday.

"We intend to offer full assistance to Greek authorities in uncovering the truth."

Friday, Vodafone's Greek Chief Executive Giorgos Koronias testified in parliament for a second day and said his company had sent 40,000 pages of documents to officials investigating the scandal.

He said he suspected overseas involvement in the bugging.

"It was not just hackers, this is something bigger," Koronias told the committee Thursday. "Such know-how does not exist in Greece."

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 10th March 2006