Spain sets new rules for US military flights

Jan 26, 2011, 14:26 GMT

Madrid - Spain has set tougher conditions for US military flights making stopovers or passing over Spanish territory, Defence Minister Carme Chacon said Wednesday.

But Chacon insisted the changes were not related to allegations that US planes transporting prisoners to the Guantanamo detention facility had made stopovers in Spain.

Madrid and Washington had agreed to revise several aspects of their defence cooperation agreement, Chacon explained in parliament. One of the revised aspects concerned flights.

Washington now needed to request flight permits earlier than before and to give more details on the flights in question, Chacon said.

The revised agreement also prohibits US military planes from refuelling above Spain.

In 1966, such a manoeuvre caused the collision of a US bomber and a tanker above the south-eastern Spanish village of Palomares. The B-52G bomber released four nuclear bombs, which did not explode, but caused some plutonium contamination in the area.

The government modified the agreement to increase the security of the Spanish airspace and to have more information on US flights, the minister said.

Spain's National Court is investigating allegations that flights operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involved in prisoner transport made more than a dozen stopovers and flew over Spain several times between 2002 and 2007.

The Spanish-US defence cooperation agreement dates from 1988, and was revised in 2002. The US uses the military bases of Rota and Moron de la Frontera in southern Spain.

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