Chris Wright, Agence France Presse  --  Arab News

MADRID, 20 April 2004 — Spain’s new Socialist government was preparing yesterday to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq within the coming weeks, rejecting criticism that its action amounted to giving into terror.

The government was also at pains to insist it would maintain ties with the United States, with Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos heading to Washington for talks this week with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Spain has already begun the process of withdrawing its troops and “the process will conclude swiftly”, Defence Minister Jose Bono said yesterday following the new Socialist government’s first Cabinet meeting.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Sunday that he wanted the 1,432 Spanish troops in Iraq, whose mandate to serve in the US-led coalition officially ends on June 30, to return home as quickly as possible.

Bono revealed the pullout operation was under way.

“We already have an operative plan,” Bono said, adding that the troops would return “as soon as possible and with maximum security. The process has started and will conclude swiftly.

Zapatero’s decision has had a mixed reaction, with at least one US ally harshly critical of Spain.

Yesterday, radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr, behind a bloody rebellion against the occupation, called on his followers to stop attacks on Spanish troops after Madrid’s announcement.

“We call (on them) to ensure the security of Spanish troops until their departure as long as these forces do not perpetrate aggressions against the Iraqi people,” said a spokesman Qais Al-Khazaali.

“Other countries which assign troops to the coalition in Iraq are urged to follow the example of Spain and to withdraw their forces to save the lives of their soldiers,” he added.

Zapatero is due to explain his decision to Parliament today. Government sources said the operation to pull out the 1,432 troops now serving in central Iraq would likely take some 50 days with the soldiers likely to leave the country via Kuwait.

The White House said Sunday the United States would continue to cooperate with Spain in the war against terrorism despite the troop decision.

Moratinos said he had spoken by telephone to Powell before Zapatero’s announcement.

The leader of Spain’s opposition conservative Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, criticized Zapatero’s decision, saying it was “not a good message in the fight against terrorism and makes Spain more vulnerable.”

The Popular Party suffered an unexpected election defeat to Zapatero’s Socialists on March 14, three days after 191 people were killed in a series of coordinated bomb blasts aboard four crowded commuter trains entering Madrid.

Among US allies, Australian Prime Minister John Howard slammed Zapatero, saying a Spanish withdrawal would encourage insurgents and plunge Iraq into more violence. “Spain’s decision will give heart to those people who are trying to delay the emergence of a free and democratic Iraq,” he said.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana however said “the European Union respects the decision.”

“There is no doubt that it was very clearly a decision taken by a democratic government after an election. Therefore we have nothing to say,” added Solana, himself a former Spanish foreign minister.

European Commission President Romano Prodi welcomed Spain’s decision during a meeting in Rome yesterday with leaders of Italy’s center-left opposition.

“Spain, with this decision, has come back to our position and the split which prevented Europe from having a common line is being reduced,” he told reporters at a meeting with Italian opposition leaders in Rome.

“Spain’s position will be seen as a strong signal to speed up the solution of these problems (in Iraq),” he said.

Prodi is a former left-wing prime minister who is set to return to Italian politics once his mandate in Brussels ends later this year.

Poland said it will not follow Spain’s example and withdraw its troops from Iraq, but will not send more troops there to replace the 1,400 Spanish soldiers due to return home, a government spokesman said in Warsaw yesterday.

“Our position on Iraq will not change as a result of the Spanish decision. The move, however, poses a certain challenge for the coalition troops because a replacement will have to be found for the Spanish troops,” Marcin Kaszuba said.

Norwegian troops will also remain in Iraq until the end of their mandate on June 30, the government reiterated yesterday, a day after former prime minister Thorbjoern Jagland called for the 150 soldiers to be brought home.Reuters.