Flames near Athens recede after 3-day inferno
The government, however, faced criticism over its handling of the crisis which could hurt its prospects in an expected snap election later this year.
A dozen Greek, Italian and French fire-fighting planes battled flames that destroyed homes and swathes of forest near the Greek capital and weather officials said winds were expected to die down as of Monday evening.
Authorities said about 150 houses were damaged by the fires, still smoldering in east Attica, where a state of emergency was declared on Saturday. Efforts were now focused on blazes on the island of Evia and near the west Attica town of Porto Germeno.
The fires had retreated from Athens suburbs late on Sunday, when authorities used loudspeakers to urge thousands to leave their communities. A children's hospital, a home for the elderly and a monastery were evacuated.
The battle against the fire, the biggest since Greece's worst wildfires in living memory killed 65 people in 2007, will be crucial to Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, who had been mulling a reshuffle before an early election this autumn.
Karamanlis's government is clinging to a one-seat majority and the socialist opposition, ahead in opinion polls, has made clear it will force a snap poll and use a March parliamentary vote, when a new president will be chosen, to achieve that, Kazinform cites Trend News. See www.en.trend.az for full version.