MADRID, March 20: Spain's new Socialist government will urge EU allies and Washington to seek a "new strategy" to counter terrorism, foreign minister-elect Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Saturday.

The existing strategy has failed, according to Moratinos who is set to take office after Socialists swept to victory on a wave of anti-war sentiment three days after bomb attacks killed 202 in Madrid on March 11.

"The Spanish government wishes to propose a new strategy to its European partners and to the United States on how to deal with this problem.

"First we must reflect on what has failed, what has not worked," said Moratinos, formerly an EU envoy to the Middle East.

Mr Moratinos said he spoke by telephone to US Secretary of State Colin Powell late on Friday to "establish a dialogue as quickly as possible".

He said there was a need for "unity in the fight against terrorism" but noted that Europe and Washington remained some distance apart on the issue.

"We do not know if they (the United States) will agree" with a new European approach, he said, although he welcomed Washington's readiness to 'talk' about how to move forward.

His comments came a day after US President George W. Bush warned allies that "there is no neutral ground between good and evil," adding that the war on terror "is an inescapable calling of our generation."

Mr Moratinos said however that "our positions are a little different."

"We think we have to use very complex and different instruments" to counter terrorism, rather than simply force," he added.

He also welcomed the 'nuanced positions' of European Union foreign policy head Javier Solana and European Commission president Romano Prodi, who have also called for a different approach to the terrorist threat.

EU interior ministers discussed a raft oftougher security measures during an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday but Solana said there was no need to panic or grab at hysterical solutions in the wake of the Madrid bombings.

"We have to energetically oppose terrorism, but we mustn't change the way we live," Mr Solana told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag in an interview which will appear on Sunday.

"Europe is not at war," he stressed.

Mr Prodi, who is seen as a likely leader of Italy's left in general elections scheduled for 2006, has also spoken out strongly against the tough US approach, saying conflict with the terrorists will not be resolved by force.

In Brussels on Friday, EU interior and justice ministers said they would push for the appointment of a "coordinator" to deal with the terrorism threat at next week's EU summit.-AFP