Australia’s prime minister-elect today said he would pull his country’s combat troops out of Iraq by mid-2008 – setting a timetable for the withdrawal he has promised previously.

Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd named his Cabinet today, choosing a woman to be Australia’s deputy leader for the first time and former Midnight Oil rock singer Peter Garrett as environment minister.

Signing the Kyoto Protocol on climate change topped the agenda for the new Australian leader Kevin Rudd as he began work today after sweeping to power at weekend elections.

A Spanish judge charged two more suspects in the Madrid railway bombings early today, bringing the total number of people charged in the case to 14, court officials said.

European leaders going to tomorrow’s state funeral for victims of the Madrid train bombings will have their first opportunity to meet face-to-face the newly-elected Socialists, and perhaps get a glimmer of Spain’s future foreign policy.

Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero tonight rejected US Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry’s call for him to reconsider plans to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.

The Islamic militant group that claimed responsibility for last week’s Madrid train bombings has called a truce with Spain to give the new government time to withdraw troops from Iraq, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper said.

Tony Blair was today struggling to hold together the coalition which took military action in Iraq, after the Spanish Prime Minister-elect accused him and US President George W Bush of going to war on the basis of lies.

US President George W Bush made a congratulatory phone call yesterday to Spain’s prime minister-elect José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Spanish prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose Socialist party won Spain’s general elections, said today he will recall 1,300 peacekeeping troops in Iraq by June 30.

Israeli prime minister-elect Ariel Sharon has spoken for the first time since his election to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Twenty-seven Palestinians and a Belgian news photographer have been injured in a gun battle between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

Ehud Barak has been offered the post of defence minister in an Israeli coalition government.

Israeli prime minister-elect Ariel Sharon has ruled out resuming peace talks with Palestinians where they left off in Egypt last month.