MADRID, January 20, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso plans periodical meetings with the country's Muslim leaders to probe ways of best integrating the minority into society, the ministry announced on Thursday, January 19.

The announcement followed a meeting between the minister and leaders of the Islamic Commission of Spain, a body created by the government in 1991 to be the representative of the Muslim minority, reported Agence France Presse (AFP).

Alonso told the Muslim leaders he would "do everything possible to reinforce in the public mind the idea that this community upholds legitimate values that have nothing to do with international terrorism", the ministry said in a statement.

The minister also valued the cooperation shown by the country's Muslim minority, estimated at about 600,000 people out of a total population of 40 million.

According to Muslim associations, there are some 230,000 Muslim immigrants in Spain, mostly in the northeastern region of Catalonia, in addition to some 260,000 native Muslim Spaniards.

Spain has more than 200 mosques, though many immigrants continue to meet in converted garages or storefronts.

The country has recognized Islam through the law of religious freedom issued in July 1967.

When the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came to power in March 2004, less than a week after the Madrid bombings, it said it would consider setting up an elected democratic Islamic council to counter extremism.

But the idea, based on the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), never bore fruit with no official explanation.

Some 191 people were killed and more than 1,000 others injured in the coordinated explosions that targeted four trains in the Spanish capital.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the blasts, citing Spain 's support for the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Spanish Muslims and scholars have denounced the explosions as "un-Islamic".