Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas on Thursday argued against efforts to establish an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for Greece on the grounds that this would unnecessarily complicate talks underway with Turkey on establishing the limits of the Aegean continental shelf. He made the statement while talking to the local radio station 'Real FM'.

"There is no need to outline the borders of the EEZ in order to be able to use mineral wealth in a sea such as the Mediterranean. The extent of the EEZ and the continental shelf are the same," Droutsas said.

The foreign minister pointed out that Greece was currently in the process of exploratory talks with Turkey to agree on the limits of the continental shelf and that it would be unwise to complicate the talks with the introduction of new terms that essentially added nothing.

He also suggested that main opposition New Democracy, which had failed to address this issue when in power, was now attempting to exploit it politically in order to generate a negative climate.

Droutsas made the statements while in Rome for the meeting of the Contant Group for Libya. In comments on the Libya crisis, he said that Greece had from the first made clear its respect for UN decisions and its readiness to do what was required to implement these but also stressed the absolute necessity of a political solution.