The Culture Against the War group, together with the Free Association of Lawyers and two groups called Judges for Democracy and Magistrates for Democracy, filed the complaints before the Supreme Court, the group of militants said.

They notably accuse Aznar of breaking Spanish law by involving Spain in a military conflict without authorisation from both houses of parliament and the King, who is head of state.

Socialist European deputy Jose Maria Mendiluce filed similar charges against Aznar late last month.

Justice Minister Jose Maria Michavila Wednesday dismissed the lawsuits as "unfounded", insisting that the government had acted in keeping with internatonal law.

The Spanish parliament on Tuesday rejected two opposition motions condemning the war and demanding that Spanish ships sent to the Gulf on a logistical and humanitarian mission must return.

Despite fierce popular opposition, Aznar's conservative government has been one of the most vocal supporters of the two-week-old US-led war to topple the regime in Baghdad.

A regional official from Aznar's ruling Popular Party (PP) broke ranks on Wednesday, charging that the US-led war was unjustified and had dealt a blow to European unity and to the United Nations.

Jose Miguel Bravo de Laguna, head of the regional parliament for Spain's Canary Islands, told reporters the war was indefensible on either moral or political grounds.

He joined a mere handful of ruling party officials who have taken a public stand against the war.

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, in Madrid for a book launch, also said Wednesday that the wave of anti-war protests should not be confused with a sign of support for President Saddam Hussein.

"I am trying to make a very clear distinction between what I think is a legitimate opposition to a war which I believe to be an unjust one, and a certain confusion of values, of priorities," he said.

"The fact that this war is illegimate does not seem to me to endow Saddam Hussein with any more legitimacy," Vargas Llosa said.

"I deplore this war not only because of the victims, for the innocents who die, but also because of its consequences," he said, citing the rift between European states as one of its most serious repercussions.

"We must make a huge effort to be rational and prevent this war from continuing to cause such terrible damage, which can last long after the wounds of the victims have healed," Vargas Llosa said.

WAR.WIRE