We cannot guarantee total security for our diplomats

Robin Cook

Britain has loaned Greece a team of Scotland Yard detectives to help investigate the killing, which happened while the diplomat was travelling to work on 8 June.

The foreign secretary, who is on a two-day working visit to Athens, was also due to discuss terrorism and regional issues with Premier Costas Simitis and Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisohoidis.

Widow's appeal

The crime detection programme Fakeli, broadcast on Greece's Mega channel, also included an interview with Brig Saunders' widow, Heather.

Greek viewers were shown a reconstruction of the attack, when two men drew alongside the diplomat's car which had stopped in heavy traffic.

Cook is on a two-day visit to Athens

He was shot with November 17's trademark 45-calibre handgun.

The urban guerrilla group has murdered 22 people since it first formed in 1975, but none of the group's members has ever been arrested.

It espouses an extreme left wing ideology and its targets have included US diplomats, CIA staff and Nato military officials.

In his interview, Mr Cook denied security for the brigadier had been lax.

He said: "We cannot guarantee total security for our diplomats, after all they are here to work with the local people, to meet the local people, to go out and move in the traffic like others and meet others."

He asked anyone who saw anything suspicious on the day of the killing, or in the days leading up to it, to provide information.

'Human tragedy'

"The murder of Stephen Saunders was a human tragedy and it has left his widow heartbroken, it has left two young girls without a father," he said.

Brigadier Saunders was shot four times

"It is very important that we provide his family with at least the peace of knowing that justice was done, but to do that we need the help of the public."

The brigadier's widow spoke movingly on the programme about her husband's final moments.

A trained nurse, she said she knew he was dead as soon as she saw him in the hospital, despite the continuing attempts of the emergency room staff to save his life.