Spain can be proud of contribution to NATO change - premier

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar told MPs in a parliamentary address on Monday that on becoming a fully integrated member of the NATO command structure Spain could be proud of the contribution it had made to its transformation.

"At the end of 1997 two parallel processes reach their conclusion: one, that of the alliance's transformation and adaptation, and the other, that which concerns Spain," Aznar said in comments broadcast by Spanish television.

By cooperating in changes in NATO Spain was "finding that the new NATO satisfies by rights its own security interests and allows it to contribute significantly to collective security and to international stability" , Aznar added.

He said Spain could "feel proud as allies and as Spaniards that the joint effort in which we have been involved in recent months has provided an alliance better prepared to extend peace and stability and more effective in the collective defence of its members" .

Spanish radio said a majority in the parliament, the Congress of Deputies, backed Aznar for having completed talks on Spain's integration into NATO's new command structure.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.