"The lessons from the last few days of the crisis reinforce my belief in the need for reforms to create a more modern, efficient and credible state," he said in a media interview on Sunday, referring to the nationwide fires which have ravaged the country since August 24.

Karamanlis' conservative government has confirmed that a general election scheduled for September 16 will go ahead despite the tragedy.

The opposition Socialists (PASOK) have scented blood over the government's handling of the fires and roundly attacked the prime minister, who had appeared set for an easy electoral win.

The arson has destroyed 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of forests and farmland and sparked widespread anger that the government did not intervene soon enough and at the scale required.

Meanwhile, the official toll climbed to 64 Sunday after a man died of serious burns in the fire-ravaged western Peloponnese region, the health ministry said in a statement.

Four water-bombing planes and a helicopter were deployed early Sunday to battle the blames around Mount Parnon where a fire was raging for a but no villages were threatened, a spokesman for the fire service said.

"This day will be difficult again because we expect strong winds in the country's west, including the Peloponnese," he said but underlined that temperatures were expected to be lower in the Athens region.

Meanwhile, Karamanlis reiterated his view that the infernoes -- which plunged Greece into a national disaster as villages were consumed by flames that moved faster than a car -- could not all have been accidental.

"So many fires, at the same time in different places cannot be coincidental," he said.

But he said no special budgetary measures would be needed to deal with the fall-out of the fires because the country's economy was health and growth strong. The economic cost "was controllable and limited," he said.

The tragedy has shown up Greece's inability to deal with a disaster of such magnitude and to draw up contingency fire-fighting plans following a baking and particularly dry summer.

Aside from Mount Parnon, the fire service said on Sunday other blazes were under control or likely to be brought under control later in the day.

Two more planes and three helicopters were sent to fight fires in the ancient town of Megalopolis and Karytaina in the central region of Arcadia and nearby Messenia, a fire service spokesman said.

Three other fires which broke out nine days ago in the island of Eubee were still burning but under "partial control," he said.

Two other blazes in Ionnina and Kilkis had been contained but a new one that broke out on Saturday in the northern prefecture of Imathia would be brought under control later in the day, he added.