ATHENS, July 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis will pay a historic official visit to Turkey, the first of its kind in 46 years as ties between the former arch-foes continue to warm up, the Greek prime minister's press office announced on Sunday.

    The announcement came as Karamanlis and his Turkish counterpart Racip Tayyip Erdogan met at a common border to inaugurate the joint project for a natural gas pipeline linking the two countries. No date was given for the visit.

    Karamanlis accepted an invitation by Erdogan, who himself paid an official visit to Athens in May 2004, the first time in a decade and a half for a Turkish prime minister to visit Greece, local media quoted the Greek prime minister's press service as saying.

    The two prime ministers are close personal friends. Karamanlis was one of the three distinguished guests at the marriage of Erdogan's daughter in Turkey in 2004.

    The last Greek prime minister to visit Turkey in an official capacity was Constantinos Karamanlis, the uncle of the present premier, in 1959.

    In 2000, the then Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit invited the Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis at the time to visit Turkey, but the trip was not realized. Enditem