Greece's worst forest fires in decades have killed 41 people in the past 24 hours and there are fears the toll could rise with villages still cut off by the flames sweeping parts of the Peloponnese peninsula.

Fires raged for a second day along new fronts with soaring temperatures and high winds hampering rescue efforts. In some areas firefighting and rescue aircraft were grounded by the high winds.

Two of the dead were French tourists who were caught hiking on a mountain south of Sparta. The manager of the Lekas Hotel near Areopolis and two of his employees also died when they went out in an attempt to look for them.

Eight more people died near the village of Zaharo on the west coast of the Peloponnese when a flash fire surrounded it. Some victims were burned alive in the cars while attempting to flee.

A total of 170 fires broke out on Thursday and Friday alone, while at least 124 fires were raging across Greece overnight, authorities said. A number of villages have been cut off by a wall of flames, stretching some 80 km from the Ionian Sea on the west coast of the Peloponnese to Mani on the peninsula's southern tip.

At least 19 firefighting planes and 18 helicopters have been called in to combat the flames, and Greece has called for urgent help from its European Union partners after declaring the provinces of Lakonia and Messinia in a state of emergency.

A combination of soaring temperatures, hot winds, drought and arson has caused the upsurge in forest fires after tens of thousands of acres of land were scorched in an even more intense heatwave last month.

Politicians interrupted campaign schedules for national elections in mid-September and Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis went to the area, saying "these are very difficult times for all of us".

His conservative government has been widely criticised for its slow reaction in dealing with a spate of forest fires during the summer and its popularity has fallen as a result.

"The primary task now is to put out the fires and repair the damage," Karamanlis said after meeting fire officials near the front.

Authorities have started sifting through burnt-out homes in the area in the search for survivors while 500 soldiers were sent to the area to help.

"It's a tragedy," an eyewitness said. "I can see the burnt bodies of a mother holding her child in her arms. Further away there are more bodies. It's terrible."

Summer heat and high winds helped to rekindle fires across other parts of southern Europe.

In Italy, where blazes are spreading across many southern areas, an 83-year-old man died near the southern city of Potenza on Friday. Police said he was probably trying to put out a fire.

Italy's Civil Protection Authority said Thursday had been the worst day for forest fires in Italian history.

Nine people have died from fires in Italy over the past month, including three at a guest house in Sicily on Wednesday.

In southeastern Bosnia, where the temperature has hit 42 degree Centigrade this week, firefighters and villagers were battling several forest fires fanned by strong winds.

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