The Greek army's new Leopard 2 HEL battle tank, fresh from the production line, was put on display on Saturday in Northern Greece during the country's annual and largest Thessaloniki's international trade fair.

The Leopard 2 is a main battle tank developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) of Munich, Germany, the semi-official ANA reported.

Greece has ordered 170 of the vehicles, with 140 of the total to be manufactured domestically by Hellenic Vehicles Industry ( ELBO).

On display is the first of the batch assigned to ELBO. The tank was built and tested for two months at the company's plant in Sindos, near the port city of Thessaloniki.

Delivery of the remaining tanks is due for completion in June 2009.

Source: Xinhua