Zapatero's Socialist Party won the March 14 general election amid allegations that outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, by backing the war in Iraq, had provoked commuter-train terrorist bombings that killed 191 people three days before the vote.
Though Zapatero had promised to remove Spanish troops, his immediate action was a bombshell, and a setback for the United States as Spain's new foreign minister prepared to travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss the dispute.
The Bush administration has been eager to maintain an international veneer on the increasingly besieged coalition force in Iraq, which is dominated by its 130,000 American troops.
In a five-minute address at Moncloa Palace, Zapatero said he had ordered Defense Minister Jose Bono to "do what is necessary for the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq to return home in the shortest time possible."
He cited his campaign pledge to bring the 1,300 troops in Iraq home by June 30, when their mandate expires, if the United Nations did not take political and military control.
"With the information we have, and which we have gathered over the past few weeks, it is not foreseeable that the United Nations will adopt a resolution" that satisfies Spain's terms by its deadline, Zapatero said.
The latest polls suggest 72 percent of the Spaniards surveyed want the troops withdrawn.
The government did not say when it would start removing its forces, but officials in Cairo said Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher of Egypt was told by his Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos, that Spain would pull out of Iraq in 15 days. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry later backtracked from that in a statement, however, saying the Spanish leader said, "The date will be announced in Iraq and has not yet been fixed."
In Washington, US officials said Zapatero's announcement was not a surprise.
"We knew from the recent Spanish election that it was the new prime minister's intention to withdraw Spanish troops from the coalition in Iraq," said a White House spokesman, Ken Lisaius. "We will work with our coalition partners in Iraq and the Spanish government and expect they will implement their decision in a coordinated, responsible, and orderly manner."
