"Saddam Hussein's insistence on acquiring weapons of mass destruction and the danger of some of these weapons falling into the hands of terrorists made his regime an extremely serious danger to international security," Aznar said.

"The world is undoubtedly safer," he told Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini.

Aznar, who was one of the staunchest backers of the US-led war on oil-rich Iraq in the face of massive opposition to the invasion from the Spanish public, did not say if there genuinely were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The inability of the United States and Britain to find any such weapons since toppling the Baghdad regime more than two months ago has triggered a furore in Washington and London.

Both US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been accused of exaggerating intelligence reports on the existence of these weapons in order to justify the war.

The right-wing Spanish prime minister said the deep divisions that the war created within the 15-nation European Union were due to "differences of opinion about the extent of the danger".

But he said the split within the EU, and the rift between the union and the US were a thing of the past.

"There's no sense in seeking differences between the United States and the European countries or creating divergences between them," he said.

"We should not forget that security in Europe is linked to the other side of the Atlantic. When the United States and Europe work together for the stability of Europe and the world, that security is increased."

In a separate newspaper interview, also published on Sunday, Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said France and Germany, the two EU states most vocally opposed to the war on Iraq, were practically seeking to merge.

"There is a strategic change of direction towards producing a very close union between France and Germany, I would almost say a merger," Palacio told Spanish daily El Pais.

On the 40th anniversary of the Franco-German Elysee treaty, on January 22, Paris and Berlin promised to set an example of integration for the rest of the EU.

That included a pledge to step up coordination and encourage mobility among their citizens by harmonising some of their civil and family laws and -- eventually -- working towards shared nationality.

WAR.WIRE