Change the access modifier of an overridden method in Java?

Question

Is there a reason one can change the access modifier of an overridden method? For instance,

abstract class Foo{
    void start(){...}
}

And

Answer 1

Edit: OK, I changed my answer to fix the problem.

If that couldn't be done, then there would be some cases where a class wouldn't be able to implement an iterface and extend a class because they have the same method with different access modifiers.

public Interface A {
  public void method();
}

public abstract classs B {
  protected void method();
}

public class AB extends B implements A {
  /*
   * This would't be possible if the access modifier coulnd't be changed
   * to less restrictive
  */
  public void method();
}