Spain Braced for Wave of Attacks As Eta Calls Off Ceasefire

Spain braced itself for a fresh terrorist attack by Basque separatist group Eta yesterday as hopes of a lasting peace were shattered by the ending of a 14-month ceasefire.

Police have warned the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that the group has several active service units in position and that it rearmed and refined its bomb-making techniques during the ceasefire, according to reports. The group had also established a stable infrastructure in Madrid.

Mr Zapatero's Socialist government immediately stepped up measures against the group, starting with former Eta hunger-striker Iñaki de Juana Chaos.

De Juana Chaos was removed by police yesterday from a hospital in the Basque city of San Sebastian, near his home, where he had been recovering from his hunger strike, and was reportedly returned to a jail near Madrid. He had started the 115-day strike in response to a prison sentence for making terrorist threats.

A judge yesterday also refused to give Arnaldo Otegi and Pernando Barrena, leaders of the banned separatist party Batasuna, permission to travel to a conference in South Africa. Judge Baltasar Garzón said there was now a risk that the trip by the two men, who are being investigated for helping finance Eta, might have "negative effects" on the investigation.

Spain's political parties, meanwhile, began to row over Mr Zapatero's failed attempt at weaning Eta off violence. The prime minister reacted angrily to demands by the leader of the conservative opposition People's party, Mariano Rajoy, that he publicly admit he had been wrong. Mr Zapatero also dismissed calls for the general election to be brought forward from next spring.

There were fears yesterday that Eta would dominate campaigning for what is now expected to be a closely fought general election.

Police remained unsure whether the group would return to selective assassinations or would concentrate on attention-grabbing bomb attacks on buildings or tourism targets.

Eta, which has killed more than 800 people in four decades, seeks the creation of a state made up of four northern Spanish provinces and part of south-western France. In a communique announcing the end of the ceasefire the group said it would be "active on all fronts to defend the Basque homeland", suggesting that a long-lasting pledge not to carry out attacks in Catalonia had also been withdrawn.