France, Spain vow to boost ties

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 25, 2004

France, Spain vow to boost ties

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French President Jacques Chirac and Spain's Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero vowed in Madrid Wednesday to reinforce bilateral relations and strengthen their cooperation against terror.

Chirac told Rodriguez Zapatero of "his will to develop a very, very close relation" and the aim to jointly promote "the European construction."

Rodriguez Zapatero, for his part, told the French president during the 25-minute meeting that he meant to work "in the serviceof the same ambitious vision of European construction," media reports said, quoting French sources.

It was the first meeting between Chirac and Spain's newly elected prime minister, whose Socialist Party beat incumbent Jose Maria Aznar's ruling Popular Party in the March 14 elections.

Rodriguez Zapatero has repeated his campaign pledge to bring back 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq unless the United Nations takes control of Iraq by June 30.

He has promised to realign Spain with France and Germany, both of whom are staunch opponents of the Iraq war, and have refused tocontribute troops to the US-led forces in Iraq.

Apart from Chirac, Rodriguez Zapatero also met with other worldleaders including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio. They came here to attend a state funeral of the 190 victims of the March 11 Madrid train bombattacks.

Source: Xinhua

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