Greek and British police in a joint operation cracked a multimillion illegal software sales ring, arresting two people and seizing thousands of pirate hi-tech software programs, Greek police said on Friday. They said they had arrested a Greek citizen and a Briton who pirated and sold an expensive computer software program for the car and aeronautic industry, charging only about 700 euros.

"The copyrights to the program belong to a multinational software development company that lost $360 million because of the illegal distribution," police officials said in a statement.

They did not name the company involved but said the man and his British accomplice in London were selling the program to buyers through the Internet.

Police in Athens also found dozens of copies of the software as well as 7 000 CDs containing "every kind of program on the world market".

Officers also confiscated documents of bank accounts, orders, a computer and three hard drives.