WAR ON IRAK

SundayMorniingHerald: Mass opposition grows in Europe

Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, the third man on the international stage beside the US President, George Bush, and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in the run-up to war, is staring at political disaster.

The most recently published poll on attitudes to war, by the state's own official pollsters, showed 91 per cent opposed.

Recent polls of voting intention show that, over two months, his People's Party has gone from running neck-and-neck with the anti-war Socialists to trailing them by six points. A clear majority of people now expect the Socialists to win next year's election.

The Government said that it was thinking "not of future elections but of future generations".

But Mr Aznar's one-time political mentor, Felix Pastor, a former party president who sits on its ruling committee, broke ranks to accuse him of destroying the years of work to creating a moderate, centre-right party.

"The idea of a moderate, humanitarian, Christian People's Party has been blown away," he told El Mundo newspaper. "The Spanish people have the right to expect their government to keep them away from all wars ... Bush's policies are so detestable that we should keep well away."