Following the presence of Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the G20 meeting in Washington last weekend, there have been further signs this week that relations between Spain and the USA will continue to improve as soon as the president elect is sworn in. Relations between the two governments have been icy ever since Zapatero withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq.

Yesterday the vice-president elect, Joe Biden, telephoned Zapatero and during their conversation arranged a meeting in January once the Obama and his team are in office. According to the Moncloa, both Biden and Zapatero are anxious to exchange views on how best to tackle the crisis in cooperation with other countries. The Spanish prime minister had a 10-minute long conversation last week with Obama himself on the day after the election result.

US spies helped to locate the ETA suspects arrested yesterday

It has also been revealed this morning that US espionage services were involved in yesterday’s successful arrest by Spanish and French police of two key ETA suspects, incluiding its military leader, Garikoitz Aspiazu, Txeroki.

They reportedly managed to discover two email accounts used by Txeroki and passed details of these on to the Spanish anti-terrorist detectives. Correspondence contained in the email accounts and also the use by the suspects of a glaringly false numberplate were the two key clues which allowed police to locate the couple yesterday.