BRUSSELS, March 15: Spain's new priorities are to restore relations with core European allies, rethink its role in Iraq and leave strategic dialogue with the United States to the European Union, its likely future Socialist foreign minister said on Monday.

In a telephone interview with Reuters, Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU Middle East envoy, outlined an agenda in stark contrast to the US-centred policy pursued by outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose conservative Popular Party was swept aside in a shock election defeat on Sunday.

Mr Moratinos, 52, said the international community must acknowledge that the US-led coalition's policy in Iraq had failed and must change. "We have been very clear about the risk and the threat that we were all facing with this illegal war in Iraq, and unfortunately Spain has paid the price," he said in a reference to last Thursday's devastating bomb attacks in Madrid.

Moratinos disputed a suggestion by Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller that to talk of pulling troops out of Iraq after the train bombings that killed 200 people and injured 1,500 was to suggest terrorists were stronger and were right.

"It's not that Spain is going to surrender against terror. We're not going to surrender but we want to be much more clever, more sophisticated and more efficient in order to defeat them," the multilingual career diplomat said.

"If we don't recognise our mistakes, we'll never get into a position to really defeat terror. The sooner we admit that the wrong policy has been made, the better for the future of the international community," he said.

MENDING EU FENCES: Moratinos, who was the EU's long-suffering intermediary between Israelis and Palestinians from 1996 until last year, made clear that mending fences with key European partners would be the Socialists' first priority.

"Of course we have to return to Europe. We have to return to the hard core of Europe. We have to re-establish confidence between Spain, France and Germany, as with the United Kingdom," he said.

"This is a time for unity, not for division in Europe. We want to be part of the main actors in Europe. That is not only wishful thinking, this can be demonstrated with policy and a very active commitment of Spain towards a strong Europe."

Under Aznar, ties with Paris and Berlin were strained, both over Iraq and over a draft European Union constitution, which he blocked to defend Madrid's oversized voting power won at a marathon summit in Nice in 2000.

Moratinos said Madrid would look for a quick compromise in a positive spirit, while defending its position in Europe. Aznar's closeness with President George W. Bush made him the darling of the Wall Street Journal and won him invitations to the presidential ranch in Texas, but it irked French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Moratinos belittled the idea of a special relationship with the United States, suggesting it had been an illusion. "Of course, we want to have the best relationship with the US administration, but we think the best strategic dialogue on an equal footing should be conducted at the level of US-European relations, and not as Spain," he said. -Reuters