UPDATE 1-Ireland delays relaxing strict COVID-19 travel restrictions until October

* Ireland among strictest EU restrictions

* Greece, Italy likely off green list

* Ryanair takes legal action against state
(Updates with details of new policy; Ryanair response)

By Conor Humphries

DUBLIN, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Ireland on Tuesday announced new
rules that will likely cut popular holiday destinations Greece
and Italy from a quarantine-free "green list" and leave some of
Europe's strictest travel restrictions in place for another
month.

Countries with 14-day COVID-19 infection rates under 25 per
100,000 will be placed on a Green List that will exempt arrivals
from those countries from quarantining for 14 days on arrival in
Ireland.

The green list was initially made up of countries with lower
infection rates than Ireland, but the government stopped
updating it in August when Ireland's infection rate rose sharply
and the list of 10 countries has been frozen since.

The government has not yet published the new green list, but
only 10 of 31 countries monitored by the European Centre for
Disease Prevention and Control figures were below the 25 cases
per 100,000 level on Tuesday.

Greece and Italy, which are on the current list, were above
that level.

Ryanair, which has taken legal proceedings to try to
force the government to ease its restrictions, condemned
Tuesday's announcement as "more delay and indecision".

It has threatened to close bases in the country's second and
third largest airports, Shannon and Cork, for the winter unless
travel restrictions are eased.

Ireland has registered 48.5 cases per 100,000 people over
the past 14 days, the 17th highest of 31 countries monitored by
the ECDC.

Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Ireland plans to adopt a
coordinated EU system of travel restrictions once they are
approved at a meeting of EU ministers on Oct. 13.

Draft guidelines published earlier this month suggested that
those guidelines would remove travel restriction on countries
with 14-day infection rates of under 50 per 100,000.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Jon Boyle and Gareth
Jones)