ARAB-EUROPEAN - Jan 11 - Zapatero Supports Iraq Election Efforts.

Spain's Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which withdrew its troops last year from Iraq, pledges 20mn ($26mn) to help finance the Iraqi elections that will be held on Jan 30. Spain is the latest European country to lend support to elections in Iraq, in spite of doubts about whether the elections should be held amid widespread insurgency. The government has been trying to reinforce its credentials as a good international citizen since it incurred the wrath of the White House administration for pulling out of the US-led coalition. Zapatero has sent peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan and has despatched military medical teams to the Asian countries devastated by the tsunami. A Govt spokesman said: Spain believes the elections are a fundamental step for the Iraqi people to feel represented by their new authorities. Even if the elections do not solve all of Iraq's problems, the legitimacy of the elected government will benefit the population and the international community". Germany, another critic of the US invasion of Iraq, is funding a radio station in Baghdad that is broadcasting educational programmes about the vote. It has also spent 5mn training election observer teams in Jordan, although it is not sending monitors itself. The European Commission is also funding the Iraqi elections with 30mn, although it will not be sending observer teams. EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: It is in the interests of everyone that the elections take place on the date that has been set". The EU is hoping that its support for the Iraqi elections will contribute to a successful summit between Pres Bush and leaders of the Union's 25 member states next month. But while the EU acknowledges that further support with institution building in Iraq would help improve relations with the US, it remains deeply reluctant to commit people and resources towards training an Iraqi police force and judiciary, for example, until there is a dramatic improvement in the security situation there. The 13-strong team organising elections in Iraq's restive Anbar province said on Jan 11 it had quit after receiving death threats from insurgents bent on undermining the polls. Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission has played down reports of mass resignations by electoral officials in Sunni Muslim provinces to the north and west, where insurgents bent on derailing the January 30 poll have attacked polling centres.