Greece says Libya-Turkish deal invalid, in bad faith

Greece has lodged objections to the United Nations over an accord between Libya and Turkey mapping out maritime boundaries as a violation of international law, a Greek government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Greece expelled the Libyan ambassador in response to the deal last week, infuriated at a pact which skirts the Greek island of Crete and infringes, in Athens's view, its continental shelf.

"This agreement was compiled in bad faith," government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters.

"It violates the (U.N.) Law of the Sea. The sea zones of Turkey and Libya do not meet, and nor is there a sea border between the two states," Petsas said.

A row over eastern Mediterranean gas reserves offshore has become increasingly shrill with countries in the region jostling to stake their claims.

Turkey has had a long-running disagreement with ethnically split Cyprus over reserves around that island.

Greece and Turkey are at loggerheads over mineral rights in the Aegean Sea, and Greece has accused the internationally-recognised Libyan government of deceiving Athens by negotiating the deal with Ankara signed last month.

It carves out a slanting sea corridor of maritime boundaries at the closest points between Libya and Turkey, potentially clearing the way for oil and gas search there.