Spain PM rejects ousted Catalan leader's call to meet

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday rejected a call by ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to meet after separatists won a parliamentary majority in crucial regional polls.

"The person I should be meeting with is with the one who won the elections, and that is Mrs Arrimadas," Rajoy said, replying to a journalist who asked whether he would respond to Puigdemont's invitation for a meeting.

Rajoy was referring to centrist, anti-independence candidate Ines Arrimadas, whose Ciudadanos party won the best individual result in Thursday's poll -- even as the bloc of separatist parties maintained its absolute majority.