US President George W. Bush expressed regret yesterday to Spain's new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, over his decision to withdraw 1,400 troops from Iraq and warned Madrid against taking further actions that could give "false comfort to terrorists", a White House spokesman said.
Spain's new government pledged yesterday to remain at the forefront of the fight against international terrorism despite its surprise decision to pull the country's troops from Iraq as soon as possible.
The response from European capitals was muted with some policymakers expressing support or respect for Mr Zapatero's move.
In Iraq, radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a halt to attacks on Spanish troops in Iraq because Spain was pulling out of the US-led occupying coalition.
Members of Mr Zapatero's government defended the Socialist leader's decision, announced on Sunday.
"That does not mean that Spain is giving up its commitment to the stability and democratisation of Iraq," Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said in a speech in Madrid.
"And of course, we will be the leading actors in the international fight against terrorism," he said.
Mr Zapatero's Socialists took office at the weekend after winning an upset election victory three days after the March 11 bombings of four packed Madrid trains killed 191 people.
A video purportedly from al Qaeda said the attacks were a response to Spanish actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Zapatero, a strident critic of the Iraq war, pledged during the election campaign to bring home the troops sent to Iraq by his conservative predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, if the United Nations did not take charge there by the end of June.
On Sunday, he said he had decided to bring forward his decision because there was no prospect of a UN resolution being adopted that met Spain's conditions.
Spanish troops will be withdrawn from Iraq in less than eight weeks and maybe even under six weeks, Defence Minister Jose Bono said yesterday.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who served in previous Spanish Socialist governments, said the EU respected Zapatero's decision. "There's no doubt that it was a very clear decision taken by a democratic government after an election," he said.
Mr Zapatero's decision creates more problems for the United States whose forces are locked in fierce fighting in Iraq. It has raised fears in the United States that other coalition members could follow suit.
Romano Prodi, European Commission president and a key figure in the Italian left-wing opposition, supported Spain's decision and said Europe was finding common ground on the issue.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has dispatched some 2,700 troops to Iraq, was dismayed by Mr Zapatero's decision, newspapers reported yesterday. "This is a serious mistake that offers international terrorism victory on a silver plate," Mr Berlusconi was quoted as saying by La Stampa newspaper.