Madrid - Uruguayan striker Sebastian Abreu has agreed to join Spanish second division side Real Sociedad from Argentina's River Plate, the Spanish club said Friday.

Abreu, 32, has agreed to a six-month contract with the Basque club, with the option for it to be extended until June 2010. He is due to fly in to San Sebastian on Friday evening for medical checks.

The striker, known as the "madman" because of his eccentric mannerisms, has played for 15 different clubs in a colourful career.

He was signed by Liga club Deportivo Coruna in 1998 but hardly managed to get a game for the Galicians.

Madrid - Heavy snowfall hampered traffic in several parts of Spain on Friday, forcing Madrid's Barajas airport to suspend flights temporarily and creating kilometres-long traffic jams in the capital.

Airport operating company AENA said flights would be resumed as soon as possible at the airport, which has also been affected by an alleged unofficial work to rule stoppage by pilots of the main Spanish airline Iberia.

Several roads leading to Madrid were cut off.

Madrid - Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar has denied denigrating US president elect Barack Obama when describing his victory as "historic exoticism and a predictable economic disaster," press reports said Friday.

Aznar issued a communique Thursday announcing possible legal action against those who had "deliberately misinterpreted" his comments to the Spanish edition of Vanity Fair magazine.

The interview prompted Socialist deputy leader Jose Blanco to refer to Aznar as a "reactionary person" with "racist roots."

Madrid - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero talked on the phone to his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert overnight, offering Spanish help in the search for peace in Gaza, government sources said Friday.

Zapatero and Olmert analysed the conditions for a ceasefire and the possibilities opened by the Franco-Egyptian peace plan.

A ceasefire needed to be "real" and to guarantee the security of both Gaza and Israel, Zapatero told the Israeli premier.

Madrid - Spanish leaders Barcelona are ready to move to their new training ground in Saint Joan Despi, according to Catalan daily Sport on Friday.

The "Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper" ("Joan Gamper Sporting City"), named after the club's 1899 Swiss founder, is located in the district of Sant Joan Despi, 4.5 kilometres from the club's famous Camp Nou stadium and covers 136,839 square metres.

Bilbao, Spain - The trial of the prime minister of Spain's semi-autonomous Basque region began Thursday on charges of having met with the illegal Batasuna party which is regarded as the political wing of the militant separatist group ETA.

Juan Jose Ibarretxe was the first Basque prime minister to be tried on criminal charges.

Ibarretxe arrived in the Bilbao court along with seven other accused including Basque Socialist leaders Patxi Lopez and Rodolfo Ares and Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi.

The accused also included four other Batasuna representatives arriving from prisons, where they were being held on separate charges.