Spanish PM Confirms Will Attend G20 Summit

This will be a crucial moment for the future of finance and international affairs.

Spain will attend next week's G20 summit in the United States on the financial crisis, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Saturday.

Germany, France, Britain and Italy, Europe's four largest economies, had long planned to attend, but Spain -- the continent's fifth largest economy, had been left off the invitation list.

"This will be a crucial moment for the future of finance and international affairs and therefore for the Spanish...a new stage will begin and we should be there from the start," Zapatero said at a press conference in Madrid.

Zapatero had reiterated on several occasions that Spain should attend the summit due to the robustness of its financial system and the fact that it is the world's eighth largest economy. The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso will also be attending.

Spanish officials had already been fuming over France's failure to invite Spain to an impromptu European summit on the financial crisis in Paris earlier in October.

The prime minister also said he had a short conversation with U.S President-elect Barak Obama on Friday in which they agreed to reinforce relations between the two countries and to work together in Latin America.

Spain's Socialist government withdrew troops from Iraq following Zapatero's first election win in 2004, putting a chill on relations between Washington and Madrid.