NOT only is the occupation of Iraq illegal, it was and still is opposed by the vast majority of people the world over. Despite unprecedented demonstrations a year ago, President Bush, Tony Blair and Jos-Maria Aznar, here in Spain, led us into a murderous conflict. Saddam Hussein has been toppled, but is the world a safer place?

War is not the solution to international problems; it never has been and never will be. War leads only to more war, more violence, more death, more insecurity. Peace is only possible where there is justice and equality. In the case of Iraq, peace will come when the Iraqi people are freely allowed to determine their own future, without foreign powers interfering in their affairs or trying to steal their oil.

A massive 90 per cent of Spanish people opposed their country's involvement in President Bush's so-called "coalition". On March 11, as many had feared, the war came home to Spain in the form of bombs planted on packed commuter trains in Madrid, in which more than 200 people were killed and 1,000 injured.

There is no doubt in the minds of the Spanish public that the two events, the US-led occupation of Iraq and the terrorist attacks on Madrid, are connected and Spain's General Election on March 14 handed power to a new socialist administration which has promised to bring the Spanish troops home. I hear that Tony Blair and cross-party politicians in the UK have been pleading with Spain's new prime minister not to do this. But here in Spain we are hoping that the new government will be true to its word and work for equality, justice and genuine peace in Europe and beyond.

Maybe in the terrible events of Madrid, and in the monumental change in government that has taken place here in Spain, there is a lesson for the ordinary people of the UK and USA. Our politicians wouldn't listen to us when we took to the streets. The lie of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" has been exposed, as we all knew it would be, yet Mr Blair and Mr Bush persist. However, Spain has shown us that it is possible to stand up to warmongers and terrorists and say no.

GARETH GEE,

(former Radcliffe resident

living in Barcelona).