25 November 2004

MADRID-Spain's King Juan Carlos was meeting with prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to tell him how his meeting with US President George W Bush went.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were due to return to Madrid after celebrating Thanksgiving with Bush at his ranch in Texas.

The meeting is being seen in political circles in Madrid as crucial in order to mend damaged relations between the two countries in recent months. 

The US President welcomed the Spanish Royal couple on Wednesday, offering some warm hospitality to offset a freezing, howling wind.

"Spain is a great country and a good ally," Bush said as he greeted the king and Queen Sofia, who flew to Crawford, Texas by helicopter.

Bush was accompanied by his wife, Laura, and his father, former president George H W Bush.

The president immediately whisked the royal couple off on a tour of his "Prairie Chapel" ranch, which was hardly looking its best having been battered, like much of Texas, by heavy storms for several days.

An invitation to Bush's ranch is considered a personal gesture extended to close allies, and the visit by Juan Carlos comes amid difficulties in US-Spanish ties caused by the war in Iraq.

Relations between Washington and Madrid have gone downhill since Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero no sooner took office in April than he withdrew Spanish soldiers deployed beside US troops in Iraq, fulfilling a campaign pledge.

The Spanish vote came days after bombings of Madrid's commuter trains, in which 191 people died on 11 March. Aznar's government had tried to  blame Basque separatists for the bombings, which were later claimed by a group linked to Al-Qaeda.

The decision to withdraw from Iraq went down particularly badly with Bush, who had an excellent working relationship with Zapatero's predecessor, conservative Jose Maria Aznar, who lost the March election.

 1 2 Next >