Kiev has urged London and Washington to order a "thorough inquiry" into the incident and to "do everything to ensure the security of journalists" covering the war in Iraq," foreign ministry spokesman Markian Lubkivsky told AFP.

Spain's Socialist opposition submitted a motion to parliament calling for an "exhaustive and credible" inquiry into the incident, parliamentary sources said.

On Tuesday, a US tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel, the main media hotel in Baghdad, killing Ukrainian cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Spanish cameraman Jose Couso.

Protsuysk, aged 35, was working for the Reuters news agency. Couso, 37, was working for the Spanish Telecinco television station.

Controversy over the incident erupted in Spain after a defence ministry spokesman said the hotel had been designated a military target 48 hours before the shelling and that journalists staying there were forewarned. The journalists in Baghdad have denied this.

Madrid, a supporter of the US-led war, has not formally asked Washington or London for an explanation of the events that led up to the shelling.

In protest, dozens of Spanish journalists have refused to report on government press briefings.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday that an inquiry into the incident was underway.

"We, as one of the military authorities in Iraq, we do everything we can to get the truth about what happened in respect of the death of these journalists," he told a joint news conference with his Spanish counterpart Ana Palacio.

Straw said it was necessary "to wait for the outcome" before coming to any conclusions but that it was "extremely unlikely" the hotel had been designated as a military target in advance.

SPACE.WIRE