Dock workers have gone on strike in Greece's main port, Piraeus, preventing thousands of holidaymakers from catching ferries.

The nationality of the tourists was not immediately clear, but it is very likely that there are Bulgarians among them, as they are traditional tourists to Greece.

Communists are at the forefront of the industrial action, but they have widespread support from the general union movement, the BBC's Malcolm Brabant reports from Athens.

Railway workers and state television employees were among those also striking on Wednesday.

The strike was called to protest against planned reforms to pensions and labour laws.

The reforms were a condition of an economic rescue package from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Just a day earlier the Greek government announced it will cover the extra costs for any tourists stranded in the country as a result of industrial action or natural disaster.

"We are guaranteeing to pay any extra room and board any visitor in Greece pays even if stuck here because of a volcano in Iceland," said Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos on Tuesday.

More than 400,000 people from Bulgaria visited Greece lat year, especially for tourism reasons, regardless of whether they were accommodated in hotels and paid for the nights spent there or stayed at friends, official figures show.

This is quite a big number even though it is down by 8,8% over the previous year, which was one of the excellent years in terms of Bulgarian tourists visiting Greece.

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