Panagiotis Kouroublis

The Chinese Embassy in Athens has filed a complaint with the Greek government concerning Thursday's blockade of the cargo terminal run by China's Cosco at Piraeus by disgruntled port workers.

The case regarding the prolonged detention in Turkey of two Greek soldiers is unlikely to be addressed until after scheduled elections in Turkey on June 24, Greece's Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis told Skai on Wednesday.

A proposal by conservative New Democracy for a parliamentary inquiry into whether former health ministers Panagiotis Kouroublis and Andreas Xanthos, as well as alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis, are guilty of breaches of faith was being discussed in the Greek Parliament on Thursday.

Greece's conservative opposition was to submit on Tuesday a proposal for the formation of an investigative committee to conduct a preliminary inquiry into whether former health ministers Panagiotis Kouroublis and Andreas Xanthos, as well as alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis, are guilty of breaches of faith.

Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis admitted on Friday that his name is mentioned in the FBI document accompanying the Novartis case file though did not indicate that he has any involvement in alleged illicit practices.

"I am the P.K. referred to in the FBI document," he told ANT1 television channel, adding that the same document refers to other Greek politicians.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to visit the islands of Kalymnos and Farmakonisi on Saturday in a highly symbolic move following several days of mounting tensions in the Aegean, Skai television reported on Thursday.

Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis on Thursday sought to play down an earlier statement that his resignation over an oil spill that has sullied the Saronic Gulf's coastlines "is at the prime minister's disposal," as the main opposition called for him to step down.

Greece's shipping minister on Thursday said he would willingly step down if asked to by the prime minister as the government came under fire over an oil spill last weekend that has spread from the island of Salamina to the southern coast of Athens.

The Port of Heraklion, Crete became a battlefield when hundreds of of angry farmers attacked striking seamen on Friday with flares, setting the ticket offices of ANEK on fire.

As residents and business groups on islands of the Aegean plan to ratchet up their protests against the scheduled revocation of a value-added tax discount next month, Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis called for a European "growth" program to boost the islands' economies, which have been dealt a double blow by the economic and refugee crises.