Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the first International Conference on the prevention and handling of dangers emanating from natural disasters on International Heritage monuments at Ancient Olympia on Thursday, underlining the work carried out to restore the Cronus hill, following the devastating wildfire in August, 2007.

Liapis said that "a continuous and persistent effort was required to achieve the work's progress and to enable us to resolve the problems that appeared," adding that "at the beginning, nobody believed that we would succeed" but "the mobilisation of a group of people for this purpose was that which produced the present result."

The minister further said that the factors determining success were determination, vision and adherrence to the objective.

"The people who became involved in this, all of them excellent scientists, worked with self-denial and for this reason we succeeded. And what we achieved met with international recognition," he pointed out.

Source : Athens News Agency