Police said four officers were hospitalised with cuts and burns after being hit with stones, flares and firebombs by gangs of protesters as they tried to clear the highway leading to the port of Lavrio, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of the capital.

The police made heavy use of tear gas, an AFP photographer said, and three of the protesters were also hurt, Lavrio Mayor Constantinos Levantis told private Skai Radio.

One person was arrested after the clashes, police said.

The residents of the nearby town of Keratea, who began a protest against the planned landfill in December, had earlier dumped additional debris on the highway and torched a small excavator sent by authorities to remove it.

The affair has been a long-running embarrassment for the government which has been criticised by the opposition for its failure to enforce the law and unblock the highway to Lavrio, a port servicing several Aegean islands.

The locals have repeatedly clashed with police since the protest began despite a series of court rulings against their cause.

They hardened their stance after Interior Minister Yiannis Ragousis said in a weekend interview that the project would be carried out "at all costs".

The mayor of Lavrio had said earlier on Tuesday that his staff were powerless to act for fear of reprisals by the protesters.

"The situation is out of control. Who would dare lift the roadblocks?" he told private Flash Radio.

Keratea has long opposed the creation of the landfill, which was earmarked for the area nearly a decade ago, arguing that the local environment will be irreversibly degraded.

The locals say the area has suffered enough from decades of mining activity and the operation of an oil-fired electricity plant near Lavrio.

The government counters that the landfill will replace illegal garbage dumps in the area that already constitute a risk to the environment.

Greece has few organised waste disposal facilities and recycling efforts have only recently begun in earnest.

For decades, garbage was dumped wholesale in ravines and other available areas, earning the country large fines from the European Commission for serious environmental neglect.

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