PARIS, Jan. 28 -- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) welcomed on Friday Spain's pension reform plan to extend retirement age.

"The reform is an important step toward improving long-term sustainability of public spending,"OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said in a statement posted on the website of the Paris- based agency.

The Spanish government on Friday announced the plan to raise the minimum legal retirement age form 65 to 67, which is widely anticipated by the market and reckoned as part of the austerity measures taken amid market doubts about its high public debts.

The fact that the reform was based on agreement between the government and major unions "bodes well for its full acceptance and implementation," Gurria said.

Last December, the OECD proposed that Spain, with a deficit close to 9.2 percent of gross domestic product and a 20 percent unemployment rate, start reforms to improve its public finances and foster job creation.

According to the Spanish government, the number of Spaniards over the age of 64 is due to double over the coming four decades, reaching about 32 percent of the total population, while pension expenditure is projected to account for 14 percent of the country' s public spending by 2050 if no changes are made.