(MADRID) - Spain on Thursday backed efforts by six Central American nations to reach an association and free trade agreement with the 27-nation European Union.

"Central America is doing its job, it is fulfilling its commitments and Spain believes the European Union has to do its work to reach this agreement, which will mark a before and after for Central America," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said after talks with Costa Rica President Oscar Arias.

The agreement will open "new prospects in the sphere of relations between the EU and Central America," he added.

Costa Rica and five other Central American nations -- Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama -- and the EU began talks in 2006 with a aim of signing an association and free trade agreement by 2010.

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