Chile has decided to call home temporarily its ambassador to Spain for consultations on the row with Madrid over the former dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet, a Spanish radio station said yesterday. State-run Radio Nacional quoted the Chilean Foreign Minister, Mr Juan Gabriel Valdes, as saying the ambassador, Mr Sergio Pizarro, would be recalled to Santiago and he would then meet him next week at the United Nations.
The decision to call the ambassador for consultations - a low level of diplomatic protest - comes amid growing pressure from the Chilean government on Spain to drop charges of human rights abuses filed by a judge in Madrid against Gen Pinochet.
The former dictator faces the start of extradition proceedings in a London court on September 27th.
Spain's El Mundo newspaper reported yesterday that Mr Valdes met representatives of major Spanish companies in Chile and asked them for help in the row with Madrid. The head of Spain's chambers of commerce said businessmen were worried about possible retaliation by Chile against Spanish companies.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported yesterday that the former British prime minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, would use a Conservative party conference to campaign for the release of Gen Pinochet. The paper said the pro-Pinochet campaign was organising a meeting on the fringes of next month's conference in Blackpool to draw attention to what they claim is the inhumane treatment of Gen Pinochet by Britain's Labour government.