There's been mixed official reaction internationally to the British legal ruling that General Pinochet is not immune to prosecution.

In Spain, the verdict was greeted with widespread jubilation, and the French National Assembly broke into spontaneous cheers.

Turkey -- currently seeking the extradition of a a Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan, from Italy -- praised the judgment as an important precedent, and Canada too welcomed it.

However, the Italian foreign minister, Lamberto Dini, said it threatened reconciliation in Chile.

The British conservative opposition leader, William Hague, said the government's handling of the affair had been a huge diplomatic embarrassment.

The conservative American business newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, saidGeneral Pinochet had been betrayed, commenting that what his only crime had been to save Chile from a Communist takeover orchestrated by Cuba.