MADRID, May 16 (IPS) - While domestic violence in Spain is becoming more and more visible, the country's laws and justice system are proving weak instruments to fight the phenomenon, according to experts from different fields who are demanding further legal reforms to address the issue.

The government of socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who took office in 2004, passed a Law on Gender Equality, appointed women to key positions in the administration, created special courts and issued drastic instructions to crack down on domestic violence.

But the violence continues: between 2001 and 2007, 425 women were killed in domestic violence cases in Spain, with 71 of the murders occurring in 2007 alone.

And this year, 32 women were murdered by May 12. Feb. 27 was a particularly black day, with four women killed.

Between the creation of the special courts for violence against women in 2005 and the end of last year, 69,400 men were prosecuted and 48,971 convicted. In 2007 alone, 126,293 complaints were filed.

But the courts are snowed under with cases and are short-staffed, so prosecutions drag on for years.