Spain's incoming government, under pressure over its plans to withdraw its troops from Iraq, has agreed to double the country's contingent in Afghanistan to 250 soldiers this summer, an aide to the future defense minister said Monday.

Associated Press

MADRID, Spain — Spain's incoming government, under pressure over its plans to withdraw its troops from Iraq, has agreed to double the country's contingent in Afghanistan to 250 soldiers this summer, an aide to the future defense minister said Monday.

Outgoing Defense Minister Federico Trillo made the decision last week in consultation with the man who will replace him, Jose Bono, and Bono made no objection, Jose Luis Fernandez, a spokesman for the future defense minister, told The Associated Press.

Reports that the Socialists, who won March 14 general elections, planned to increase Spain's presence in Afghanistan first surfaced last week, and the idea was widely interpreted as a bid to deflect criticism of their plans to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq unless the United Nations takes charge there.

Prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero campaigned on a pledge to remove those soldiers, and has reiterated the pledge since his upset victory over Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's party.

Zapatero has called both the war and the occupation illegal because they lacked a mandate from the United Nations.

His party sees Afghanistan as totally different because the occupation is sanctioned by the United Nations and the troops overseeing the country's reconstruction after the U.S. attacks that toppled the Taliban in 2002 are under NATO command.

The Spanish troop contingent in Afghanistan will be doubled from 125 to 250 in August, Fernandez said.