MADRID, 2 August 2003 — Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said yesterday that Spain would this autumn host a donor’s conference on rebuilding Iraq.
“I can announce that the donors’ conference will take place in Spain,” Rajoy told reporters following a Cabinet meeting.
He gave no date for the event but said a preparatory meeting was slated for September following a similar meeting in June in New York.
Along with Britain, the Spanish government of conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was a key US ally during the war in Iraq.
Rajoy also revealed the extent of the ongoing Spanish military deployment in Iraq to shore up the existing presence of US and British troops.
He said 900 soldiers from the multinational Plus Ultra brigade comprising troops from Spain as well as Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic would be deployed on Aug. 17 and 18 at Ad-Diwaniyah, some 160km (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad where their command post will be based.
