Little more than five months before the opening of the August Olympics, Athens 2004 organizers have met their target of attracting 150,000 applications from people willing to work as volunteers during the Games.

The organizing committee said yesterday it had received 150,360 applications by the end of February — 25.15 percent of which were from foreign nationals resident abroad, and another 9.45 percent from Greeks of the diaspora.

Some 45,000 volunteers will be needed to work during the August 13-29 Olympics, and another 15,000 during the September Paralympics. But Athens 2004 organizers have said they want 120-150,000 applications to be able to pick the best candidates.

So far, 15,000 have been accepted to work as volunteers.

Some 56 percent of all applicants were women, while 60.14 percent of the Greek applicants live in Attica.