Socialist leader vows to bring Spanish troops home from Iraq

<br> <br>MADRID, Spain (AP) _ The leader of Spain's victorious Socialists said Monday that he will bring his nation's troops home from Iraq by June 30, fulfilling a campaign promise a day after

Monday, March 15th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MADRID, Spain (AP) _ The leader of Spain's victorious Socialists said Monday that he will bring his nation's troops home from Iraq by June 30, fulfilling a campaign promise a day after his party's win in elections overshadowed by terrorist bombings.

The surprise defeat Sunday of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservatives marked the first time a government that backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq has been voted out of office and came amid charges that Aznar made Spain a target for terrorists by supporting the war.

Thursday's train bombings _ the worst terrorist attacks in Spain's history _ killed 200 people and wounded some 1,500.

``The Spanish troops which are in Iraq will be returning home,'' Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told Cadena Ser radio. He said the troops would be recalled once he puts together a government some time in mid-April and formally takes over as prime minister.

However, a party spokesman explained to The Associated Press that Zapatero sticks by his campaign condition that the 1,300 troops would stay if the United Nations assumed control of the peacekeeping operation in Iraq.

Of the 1,500 people injured in the Madrid attacks, 243 remained hospitalized Monday, with 11 in critical condition, news media reported.

In Sunday's election the Socialists defeated the ruling Popular Party, jumping from 125 seats to 164 in the 350-member Congress of Deputies. The conservatives fell from 183 to 148.

The Spanish stock market shuddered over news that Socialists will take power, with the benchmark Ibex-35 stock index dropping 2.4 percent at the opening bell. It was down 3.2 percent shortly after noon local time.

The conservatives' defeat was unexpected. Pre-election polls had projected the Popular Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, would win comfortably, and even some exit polls Sunday showed it might win.

But when the ballots were tallied, the Socialists netted 10.9 million to the PP's 9.6 million. Turnout was 77 percent.

Zapatero ran for the first time for prime minister against an entrenched government and won. ``That broke a lot of precedents,'' party campaign manager Jose Blanco said Monday.

The circumstances were exceptional.

The train bombings were followed by nationwide street rallies against the attacks, smaller ones against Aznar's increasingly beleaguered government and the arrest of five suspects in the bombings, including three Moroccans, and a reported al-Qaida claim of responsibility in a videotape.

The tape raised the possibility that terrorists aligned with Osama bin Laden had changed the course of a national election. Spain's government has insisted its prime suspect in Thursday's rail bombings was the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

Zapatero said Monday he would attempt to form a purely Socialist government, not a coalition with other parties.

Late Sunday, Zapatero started his victory speech by remembering those killed in the railway bombings. ``At this moment I think of the lives that were broken by terror on Thursday,'' he said, then asked the crowd to join him in a minute of silence.

``My most immediate priority will be to fight terrorism,'' he said.

The Spanish Socialist Workers Party ruled from 1982 to 1996 but ran afoul of corruption scandals and was voted out in 1996, when Aznar took power.

Savoring victory again, outside Socialist party headquarters 1,000 jubilant supporters cheered and waved the party's red flag Sunday. But they, too, mourned those killed in the railway blasts. ``Not all of us are here. Two hundred are missing,'' the crowd shouted.

``I think the party won because of people's frustration people about the Popular Party getting us into the war in Iraq,'' said one of them, housewife Loli Carrasco Gomez, 36.

Of the troops in Iraq, she said: ``I hope they all come home and never go back.''

Aznar chose not to seek a third term, saying he wanted renewal in government and his party.