Madrid: Spain's new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has ordered his country's troops to withdraw from Iraq "as soon as possible" as he said Madrid's conditions for maintaining the contingent in the US-led coalition appear unlikely to be fulfilled.

Zapatero had vowed following his Socialist Party's election win last month to pull Spanish troops from Iraq unless they come under UN command by June 30 when their mandate expires.

"I have given the order to the Defence Minister to take the necessary measures so that Spanish troops are withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible and with maximum security," Zapatero said yesterday (April 18, 2004) in an address on Spanish television a day after formally taking office.

"It does not look like a UN resolution will match the content" of the Spanish demands for the continued presence of the troops, the Prime Minister said.

US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on April 16 pledged to give the United Nations a central role in the transfer of power to the Iraqi interim Government, planned for June 30.

The move had been seen as a way to keep countries like Spain on board with the US-led coalition, despite a recent surge in violence and hostage-taking in Iraq.

Zapatero gave no details on the timetable for the withdrawal, but Government sources said the pullout could take place over about 50 days.