"Obviously yesterday they made a very serious mistake," Defence Mininster Federico Trillot told reporters in Madrid.

On Tuesday, a US tank fired a shell at the Hotel Palestine in Baghdad, killing Spanish camerman Jose Couso and Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk.

The Pentagon says the tank was responding after being fired on from the hotel. Journalists in the hotel deny any shots came from the building.

Asked by reporters whether Washington had since given Madrid guarantees that US troops would refrain from attacking the Hotel Palestine in future, Trillo said: "I am sure the government of the United States, which sent us its condolences yesterday, will make every effort."

But he added: "We are not in the area, we do not have combat troops and we have no guarantee other than to stress that these are armies who are trying to act in accordance with international law."

On Tuesday the Madrid government asked all Spanish journalists to leave Baghdad, saying they could become Iraqi military targets in uncontrollable situations.

A Spanish C-130 transport plane sent to Kuwait to repatriate the corpse of Julio Anguita Parrado, a Spanish journalist killed in an Iraqi rocket attack on Monday, will stay there until the end of Wednesday to collect Couso's body and any Spanish journalists who want to leave.

The Spanish government is one of Washington's strongest allies in the war on Iraq, despite massive opposition from the Spanish population.

SPACE.WIRE