US disappointed with Spain's Iraq pullout

MADRID - The United States has voiced disappointment at Spain's decision to withdraw its 1,400 troops from Iraq but wants close ties with the new Madrid government, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos says.

Moratinos said he had spoken to the US secretary of state to inform him of Spain's decision just hours before the surprise announcement by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Sunday, only a day after taking office.

"I cannot hide that there was a certain degree of disappointment from Secretary of State Colin Powell," Moratinos told Cadena Ser radio on Monday.

"But he told me he understood the political reasons for the decision and that he wanted to maintain the highest relations with me and the whole Spanish government," said Moratinos, who flies to Washington on Tuesday for talks with Powell and US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Zapatero's decision creates more problems for US-led forces locked in the fiercest fighting in Iraq since last year's war toppled Saddam Hussein. US combat casualties in Iraq have topped 500.

A Spanish government source told Reuters that the withdrawal operation would take "at least a month and a half to two months" and declined to say when it would start.

Socialist leader Zapatero, who won a shock victory in March 14 elections only three days after Madrid train bombs killed 191 people, campaigned on a pledge to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq if the United Nations did not take charge there by June 30.

Moratinos said the decision to pull out Spanish forces was taken to comply with that electoral promise once it became clear there was no prospect of a UN resolution which met Spain's conditions.

"We consulted with senior UN officials...and with other allies. What they all said was that it was very difficult for the UN to take full political responsibility and military leadership in Iraq after the handover of power to the Iraqi government on June 30," Moratinos said in an interview with El Pais newspaper.

Moratinos said he had spoken to officials in the United States, Britain, Poland, Germany and Arab countries as well as UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi before the new Socialist government took the decision.

Spanish voters swept former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's pro-US Popular Party from power last month amid an outcry over its handling of the March 11 bombing and its unpopular support for the US-led war in Iraq.

A videotape purportedly from al Qaeda said the rush-hour train bombs in Madrid were a response to Spanish support of US-led military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq