Cordoba, Spain - Cuba is confident that Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will become the first Spanish prime minister to make an official visit to the island since 1986, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Wednesday.

Zapatero would also be the first Western European leader to visit the island since 1999, when his predecessor Jose Maria Aznar and then Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio attended an Ibero-American summit in Havana.

Perez Roque spoke in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba, which he visited after meeting his counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos in Madrid on Tuesday.

Madrid - Spain's main Ibex-35 index reacted to the slowdown on Wall Street, slipping 1.2 per cent to 10,103 points as trading opened on Wednesday.

Madrid - Santander, Spain's leading bank, plans to take advantage of the ongoing financial crisis to take control of Sovereign Bancorp, which has suffered recent losses, according to a media report.

Negotiations for the takeover are still underway, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, quoting Santander.

According to the report, Santander wants to offer about 1.8 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) for Sovereign Bancorp, in which the bank already has a 25 per cent stake.

Santander bought that stake three years ago, when Sovereign's shares sold for 27 dollars. Now they are worth 3.80, which means Santander has lost about 2 billion euros on the investment.

Valencia, Spain - A British woman and her daughter were killed after being carried away by flooding near Valencia in eastern Spain, officials said Friday.

The two women, aged 47 and 14, had been crossing a gully on foot in L'Olleria on Thursday evening. Their bodies were retrieved in the morning.

Rainwater inundated streets, tunnels and garages, and blocked roads and railway lines in the Valencia region. The ports of Valencia, Gandia and Sagunto were closed.

In southern Spain, stormy weather prompted the suspension of ferry links with the Moroccan port of Tangier and Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta.

Madrid - The Madrid stock market was dra