MADRID, March 24: Spain's incoming prime minister resisted U.S. and British pressure on Wednesday to keep Spanish troops in Iraq and said they could only stay if the United Nations was given much greater control of the occupation.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met US Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss Iraq, and Mr Zapatero's likely foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said he had held firm.
Zapatero told them the 1,300 Spanish troops would come home on June 30 unless radical changes gave the United Nations control over security policy and the democratic transition in Iraq, Mr Moratinos said.
Zapatero's pledge to pull out the troops has popular support in Spain and Mr Blair appeared to recognize that in their meeting. "The prime minister said he understood that whichever way the situation moved in Iraq, Zapatero was backed by the Spanish people," a spokesman for Mr Blair said.
Colin Powell and Zapatero met for about 15 minutes. The United States and Britain are now looking to build consensus on a new U.N. resolution aimed at boosting its role in Iraq and persuading Zapatero to stay on board.
Mr Powell and Tony Blair were in Spain with other world leaders and royalty to mourn the 200 victims of the Madrid train bomb attacks, which have been blamed on the Al Qaeda network.
Many Spaniards believe their capital was targeted in revenge for their government's support of the Iraq invasion and it was a voter revolt that swept Zapatero to power in elections held just three days after the attack.
Outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was a staunch ally in the Iraq occupation, but Zapatero has branded it a "fiasco". German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac, who both strongly opposed the invasion and refused to send troops for the occupation force, were also in Madrid to join grieving relatives at a state funeral mass in Almudena Cathedral.
"UNSPEAKABLE CRUELTY": "Great is the pain that has overwhelmed your lives and those of your families since that black day in which brutal terrorist violence, executed with unspeakable cruelty, cut down the lives of your most loved ones," Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, the archbishop of Madrid, told victims' relatives at the mass.
The bombings on four packed commuter trains killed over 200 people, wounded around 1,900 and brought the spectre of terrorism to the heart of Europe. It was the worst strike in the West since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Spain is holding 13 suspects, including 10 Moroccans, in the investigation, but police fear the masterminds may still be at large. -Reuters