Eta Declares Catalonia Ceasefire

The outlawed Basque separatist group Eta declared a ceasefire in the semi-autonomous Spanish region of Catalonia today, prompting an angry response from Madrid.

Eta "ceased all its activities in the [Catalan] region as of January 1 2004" with the aim of "uniting ties between the Basque and Catalan peoples on the basis of respect, non-interference and solidarity," an anonymous spokesman for the armed group said in a radio broadcast.

The unilateral declaration, which marks the first truce by Eta since it ended a 14-month ceasefire covering all Spain in December 1999, was described as a "trap" by the national government.

"This is a truce that only benefits Eta. Once more, these are traps for democracy, traps for freedom ... They seek to undermine the fight against terrorism ... but they will not succeed. We will continue with the same strategy, detaining members of the terrorist organisation," said Interior Minister Angel Acebes.

The move comes just three weeks after Josep Luís Carod-Rovira, deputy head of the regional Catalan government and a prominent member of the opposition Spanish Socialist party, was forced to resign after admitting to secret contacts with Eta.

Mr Carod-Rovira met two Eta leaders for talks in the southern French city of Perpignan while he was standing in as acting leader of Catalonia's semi-autonomous government.

He denied reports that he had tried to broker a deal which would have seen Eta pledge not to carry out any attacks in the region, which includes the popular tourist destination of Barcelona.

While many Basques and Catalans are in favour of dialogue with Eta and will welcome today's development, the rest of Spain is more supportive of a stance of non-negotiation.

As such, the truce is likely to be seen as damaging to the Spanish Socialist party's campaign to beat the rightwing People's party of the prime minister, José María Aznar in next month's general elections.

Mr Aznar, who survived an Eta bomb attack while opposition leader in 1995, has turned the battle against Eta and separatism in the Basque country and Catalonia into one of his party's strongest campaign issues.

At the time of the scandal over Mr Carod-Rovira's discussions with Eta, Mr Aznar accused him of helping Eta choose its targets. "It is a way of signalling to a terrorist group who they can kill and who they cannot," he said.

Eta, listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a campaign for autonomy in the Basque region of northern Spain and south-western France.

The group has been relatively quiet in recent months amid a crackdown by Spanish and French police. Eta's tally of three killings in 2003 was its lowest since 1973 with the exception of the ceasefire year of 1999.