Armed Greek guards will accompany athletes from countries considered potential terrorist targets during the Athens Olympics, Greece's public order ministry said on Monday.

Guards will be on all buses ferrying athletes during the Games, and will carry arms when dealing with "higher risk" countries, said the ministry, which did not list the countries.

Greece has budgeted more than $US750 million ($A953.35 million) on Olympic security, and plans to deploy more than 50,000 security personnel, including soldiers.

Seven nations, including the United States, Britain and Australia, are part of an advisory group helping Greece prepare security for the games.

United States and Australia are also among the several countries which have requested additional security for their athletes.

According to a poll carried out by The Associated Press, and published Saturday, 52 per cent of Americans believe a terrorist attack is likely to occur at the Athens Games. And four out of 10 say American athletes are most likely to be the target of any such attack.

The AP-Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults was taken Feb. 2-4. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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