Extra staff have been dispatched to guard the great cultural gems of Greece as the government in Athens tries to deflect growing criticism of its handling of national treasures.

Amid unprecedented protests from tour guides, travel companies and tourists irritated by conditions at prime archaeological sites, the ruling conservatives last week rushed hundreds of additional personnel to staff museums and open-air antiquities.

"The situation at museums and sites around the country is bad," the culture minister, Michalis Liapis, conceded in parliament last week. "It has to be corrected."

The move follows embarrassing revelations over the upkeep of Greece's ancient wonders and mounting public disquiet, voiced mostly by foreigners in the local press, over visitor access to them.

Yesterday, the authoritative newspaper Sunday Vima disclosed that the Cycladic isle of Delos - the site of Apollo's mythological sanctuary and one of Greece's most important ancient venues - resembled an "archaeological rubbish dump". Recently, it emerged that many sites, including Delphi, Mycenae and the spectacular Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri on the popular island of Santorini, were only partially open or permanently closed.

In an effort to stem the criticism, the conservatives last week ordered that opening hours be extended at museums and sites nationwide. Following the timetable of civil servants, sites had opened at 8am and closed by 3pm, denying thousands of tourists, especially those on cruise ships, the chance to see them.

After finding closed gates at the ancient site of Delphi on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, one disgruntled visitor summed up the general mood in the English-language weekly Athens Plus: "The next step should be to close the sites entirely, and perhaps to rebury them so as to ensure permanent inaccessibility. This thoughtful policy must represent one of the most advanced ways of preventing tourism."

Although welcomed by tour guides and operators who have likewise been besieged with complaints by visitors having to cram in sites in record time, the government's decision to extend opening hours until 7pm has also been met with scepticism by the tourist industry.

"The vast majority of people want to visit these sites during the pre- and post-peak seasons and not during the searingly hot summer months when our clientele want to go to the beach," said Rosy Agianozoglou, a hotelier on the Saronic isle of Agistri.

While home to some of the western world's greatest monuments, Greece has fewer than 100,000 employees working in the cultural sector, an eighth of that in the UK.

Critcis claim Athens has been allowed to lose its hard-won lustre since staging the 2004 Olympic Games, with critics pointing to the graffiti that has infested the historic Plaka district beneath the Acropolis and the litter-filled streets surrounding the National Archaeological Museum as evidence of the degeneration.

"What we are seeing is the indifference of a government that simply does not make culture a priority," the shadow culture minister, Maria Damanaki, told the Guardian.

"Every day, less and less funds are allocated to culture with the result that several venerable institutions are closed and the sector has around one tenth of the personnel it needs. It is a very serious problem that is hurting Greece."
Treasures unseen

Museum of Heraklion - houses treasures from Crete's Palace of Knossos, the world's best collection of Minoan art - is closed until 2010 due to renovation.

Archaeological site of Akrotiri, Santorini, closed for third successive year despite government pledges that it would reopen this summer following the collapse of its roof.

Museum of Delos, one of Greece's most important mythological and archaeological sites, was closed until last week due to lack of staff.

Delphi, revered by the ancients as the centre of the Earth, used to open from 8am to 1pm until opening hours were extended at sites in Greece last week.

Ancient theatre of Epidavros was the site of chaotic scenes following strikes by cleaners at its two toilets.