There is talk of mass privatisations of public property (although Mr Papandreou balks at selling off any Aegean islands).

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The Peloponnese, a large and beautiful peninsula connected to the mainland of Greece by a narrow isthmus at Corinth, draws fewer American travelers than the Aegean islands.

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Russian oligarchs bought expensive land on Aegean Islands.

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It has frayed recently over Turkey's reluctance to stop large numbers of Central Asian and Middle Eastern migrants crossing from its Aegean coast to the Greek islands despite the EU's Frontex team of helicopters and patrol boats keeping watch on illegal immigration.

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These houses command sweeping views of the Aegean and, on clear days, other Cycladic islands.

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Despite a telephone call from Madeleine Albright, America's secretary of state, to offer her services, no progress was made on the nagging issue of how to handle the Greek-Turkish quarrels over ownership of uninhabited islands close to the Turkish coast and oil rights under the Aegean.

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In Greece, for example, ten NGOs and a network of local activists dotted across the Aegean are resisting a controversial planning change that would make it easier to build holiday houses on the islands.

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