22064: Esser: Spanish PM to consider Chilean suggestion on troops in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

Xinhua

May 25, 2004

Spanish PM to consider Chilean suggestion on troops in Haiti

    MADRID, May 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero said Tuesday he will consider Chilean President
Ricardo Lagos' suggestion on contributing Spanish troops to the UN
peacekeeping mission in Haiti.

    "We will consider very seriously the opinion expressed today by
President Lagos," Zapatero told a joint press conference with Lagos
at La Moncloa Palace in Madrid, responding to the question if troops
could possibly be sent to Haiti after the full withdrawal of Spanish
forces from Iraq.

    Zapatero underlined Spain's commitment to the UN peace and
stability missions around the world, which include an "important
number" of troops from Spain. But he warned that any request for
contributions of troops had to be suited to the operational capacity
of the Spanish military.

    Lagos stressed the importance of Latin American countries
answering to UN calls on the stabilization mission in Haiti and
acting in defense of multilateralism.

    While Zapatero considered it premature to answer immediately to
the troop request, Spanish Defense Minister Jose Bono, speaking inthe
Congress of Deputies (Spain's lower house of parliament)
hours earlier, denied that plans for sending troops to Haiti are being
evaluated.
.