(Adds quotes from victims)

By Jane Barrett

MADRID, Feb 15 (Reuters) - One of the men accused of masterminding the Madrid train bombings condemned the blasts that killed 191 people, as a Spanish court opened a trial into Europe's deadliest al Qaeda-related attack on Thursday.

Lawyers and victims packed into the courtroom to hear evidence from 20 Arab men and nine Spaniards facing charges ranging from terrorist murder to stealing dynamite from mines to sell to the bombers in exchange for drugs.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed is accused of being one of the masterminds of attacks that ripped apart four commuter trains like tin cans early on March 11, 2004.

"Obviously I condemn the attacks unconditionally and completely. That is my very clear and absolute conviction," said Ahmed, who is appealing an Italian court ruling that convicted him of belonging to a terrorist organisation last year.

Ahmed, known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", denied having had any links with al Qaeda or any Islamist group on Thursday.

"Thanks to God I am a Muslim but I practise my religion in a normal way, not an extremist way," Ahmed told the court, dressed in jeans and a white jacket and speaking through a translator.

The Spanish state prosecutor has charged Ahmed with inciting people to carry out the Madrid bombings, which he denies, and asked for him to be sentenced to more than 38,000 years in jail. The maximum anyone can serve in Spain is 40 years.

Ahmed is one of four men the state attorney says heeded a call by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2003 for people to attack countries that backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Another two are due to take the stand after Ahmed. The fourth was one of seven main suspects who blew themselves up in an apartment block weeks after the Madrid attacks. Ahmed denied knowing the other suspected militants.

PSYCHOLOGICAL STRAIN

More than 2,000 people were injured by the bombs, which had been stuffed into sports bags and set off by mobile phones. Many are still undergoing treatment and have never returned to work.

Several victims were in court on Thursday and a team of psychologists was on hand to help them deal with the stress of the hearings, which are expected to last five months.

"It was really hard. I felt a deep pain ... anger and impotence when I saw them sitting there," said Conchi Madrigal, who lost a friend in the attacks.

The 18 suspects being held in prison sat in a bulletproof glass box, while the 11 not under detention took their seats in open court. All have pleaded not guilty.

"I went over to the box and yelled 'you bastards!'. I just needed to do it. I needed to look them in the eyes," said Eva Giron, whose partner was killed in one of the trains when their daughter was four months old.

The next person to take the stand when the trial resumes on Friday is Youssef Belhadj, said by prosecutors to be the man who appeared on a video claiming the attacks as revenge for Spain's support for the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Three days after the bombs, Spain held general elections and voted out the conservative Popular Party (PP) government, a close U.S. ally which had initially blamed the attacks on Basque separatists ETA.

The new Socialist government quickly fulfilled a pledge to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq.

After the three-judge panel hears evidence from the 29 accused, they will move to more than 600 witnesses and 100 experts. They then retire to consider the evidence and are not expected to hand down sentences until at least October.

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