Spain Divided Over Eta Deal As Hopes Grow for Arms Handover

A claim that the Basque separatist group Eta is to make a symbolic handover of arms has added fuel to an already heated debate in Spain over whether the government should be negotiating a peace deal.

Intereconomia radio station said the group was preparing to hand over some 100 of the 350 pistols it stole from a French arms dealership last October. "It would be a public relations exercise for the group, which would in no way diminish its operational capacity," the station said in a press release, which did not identify sources.

Spain's interior ministry refused to comment on the report. It came as the poll ratings of the Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, suffered in the wake of a decision to allow Eta hunger striker Iñaki de Juana Chaos to serve out a prison sentence under house arrest.

Polls show fewer than a third of Spaniards approve of the measure, while opposition politicians accuse Mr Zapatero of bending to Eta's will. Hundreds of thousands of people protested in Madrid at the weekend against the decision.

Hopes for an end to almost four decades of Eta violence were shattered when the group broke a nine-month ceasefire with a bomb that killed two men at Barajas airport, Madrid, in December. Although the government said at the time that Eta had broken the peace process, the group has since insisted its ceasefire is back on.

Eta's banned political ally, the Batasuna party, hopes to be allowed to stand under a new name in local elections in May. It was reported to have held a secret assembly in the Basque town of Portugalete over the weekend. It is expected to announce its next move at a conference on March 31.

Three suspected Eta members were arrested in the French border town of Hendaye on Tuesday, reportedly in connection with three killings in Spain.