Spain's troops heading out of Iraq

Spain's incoming leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero indicated yesterday he would pull his troops out of the "disastrous" occupation of Iraq in a major swing from his predecessor's pro-American foreign policy.

The European Union, concerned by growing signs that Thursday's Madrid train bombings may have been carried out by Islamist militants, called emergency counter-terrorism talks.

Mr Zapatero's Socialists swept to office on Sunday in a shock victory over Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservatives.

Some analysts said it could be an alarming first case of Islamist militants influencing, by violence, the outcome of a major Western election.

But Mr Zapatero called his triumph a first consequence of the Iraq war's unpopularity with Spaniards.

"The second will be that the Spanish troops will come back," he told a Spanish radio station.

"Mr Blair and Mr Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism... you can't organise a war with lies," he said in remarkably frank comments for the next prime minister of Western Europe's youngest democracy and fifth largest economy. US President George W. Bush called to congratulate 43-year-old Zapatero. "The two leaders said they both looked forward to working together, particularly on our shared commitment to fighting terrorism," a White House spokesman said.

Mr Bush did not ask about a Spanish troop withdrawal. Mr Zapatero, due to take office within the next month, repeated several times yesterday his campaign pledge to pull out troops unless the United Nations takes charge in Iraq by mid-year - a shift in control that he said was unlikely.

A US official, who asked not to be named, said Washington could push for a new UN resolution before it hands back sovereignty to Iraqis by the end of June, to encourage allies such as Spain to keep their troops in Iraq.

Spain has 1,300 soldiers in parts of south-central Iraq. Critics of the government have argued that the Madrid bombings were the price Spain paid for backing the Iraq occupation.

"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," Spain's likely next foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told Reuters.