Bush calls Zapatero

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

Spokesman Scott McClellan said Mr Bush also phoned outgoing prime minister José Maria Aznar “to thank him for his support and friendship”.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke for 15 minutes yesterday Mr Zapatero in what Downing Street called a “warm and friendly” chat on the telephone.

The two men spoke just hours after Mr Zapatero, in a Spanish radio interview, called the Iraq war a “disaster” and suggested that Mr Blair and Mr Bush engage in “self-criticism”.