SOFIA - Spain did not ask anyone's permission to pull its troops out of Iraq, Defence Minister Jose Bono said on Monday during a visit to Bulgaria, which is considering doing exactly the same thing.
"Prime Minister (Jose Luis Rodriquez) Zapatero announced his decision that if we win the elections we will withdraw our troops from a place they should not have been (deployed) at all and that was what we did," Bono said after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Nikolay Svinarov.
"We were neither subjected to pressure, nor have we sought permission. We took a sovereign decision."
Withdrawing Spain's 1,300 soldiers from Iraq was one the first decisions taken by Zapatero's Socialist government after it came to power in March 2004, making Spain the first country to pull out of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
Bulgaria's centre-right government is studying a proposal Svinarov made last week that Bulgaria withdraw all its troops from Iraq by December 31 and is due to take a decision on Thursday.
It will then go to parliament for approval.
The proposal drew a plea from the US ambassador to Bulgaria, James Pardew, that Sofia should not set a deadline for withdrawal.
Bulgaria has 460 soldiers serving in Iraq, but some 70 percent of the Bulgarian public opposes their deployment and Bulgaria's Socialist Party has promised a pullout if it wins general elections in June.
Bono is visiting Bulgaria at the invitation of Svinarov and the two countries Monday signed an agreement on cooperation in defence matters.
03/28/2005 12:25 GMT