In other measures, the ministry plans to charge a fee of 300 euros (dollars) to register pets. And it will be the dog-house for pet owners who release their animals because they no longer want them - they face new fines.

Athens, which will host the 2004 Olympic Games, is home to thousands of stray cats and dogs that roam freely through the city, including around its main central square.

City authorities said last year said as many as 3,000 dogs were loose in the capital.

Former French film star and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot wrote to the Greek president a year ago, urging him to muzzle plans to exterminate the stray dogs.

"This is our answer to those who with malice accused our country of creating crematoria of stray dogs ahead of the Olympic Games," Hatzimichalis said.

Local people cite a boom in the city's dog population in the 1990s when residents, fearful of an influx of refugees from unrest in neighbouring Balkan nations, went on a buying spree for fearsome guard dogs.

When anxieties receded with the end of the Balkan wars, many unwanted large dogs like German Shepherds were released onto the streets.

The animals have become so used to life in central Athens that many of them wait at traffic lights like pedestrians to cross busy streets when the green light shows.

The new measures are in a draft bill, soon to be presented to parliament, which is guaranteed to be made law because of the ruling Socialist Party's hefty majority.