Initial reports from Spain had spoken of 455 troops, but because media were forbidden to attend the departure, there was confusing information as to how many troops left for Iraq.

The troops are an advance group of a total 1,300-strong Spanish contingent to serve in a multinational force in post-war Iraq.

The Spanish, who will operate under Polish control, will be deployed in the southern regions of Qadisiyah and Najaf.

They are to be joined by 1,1000 troops from central American states and are expected to serve for six months through to December 30.

Spain was a key ally of the United States and Britain in the Iraqi conflict but sending troops represents a political gamble by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose unwavering support for the US-British coalition has engendered much criticism at home.

Last Wednesday, two Spanish navy vessels left the southern naval base of Rota for the southern port of Almeria, where materiel will be loaded in advance of the ships' departure for Iraq via Kuwait while a 60-member advance party of troops left their base in the northern city of Zaragoza.

While Aznar sees the mission as relatively low-risk that view is not shared by the opposition Socialist Party (PSOE).

PSOE spokesman Jesus Caldera accused the government in midweek of "putting the lives of the soldiers at risk" in a misguided attempt to protect the interests of the US administration.

Socialist Party's legal spokesman Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar on Tuesday blasted the troop deployment as a "subordination of the national interest ... to the policy of the Bush administration".

Adding to the controversy, the troops will wear the cross of Saint James on their sleeve, regarded as a symbol of the reconquest of Spain from the Moors five centuries ago.

Although Spain is a predominantly Catholic country Spanish daily El Mundo wrote in a midweek editorial that "it would have been difficult to choose a symbol more offensive to Iraq's shiite population than the cross, especially the Saint James cross, which has connotations of war against the Arabs."

WAR.WIRE