Loan Adviser

ETA's political wing urges peace talks in Spain

The group, however, refused to condemn ETA violence, the main obstacle to any new peace initiative with the Spanish government and opposition parties.

Lack of conviction violence is also the reason that Batasuna, which seeks independence for the Basque region of northern Spain, is outlawed.

According to a statement from Batasuna, be established a negotiation process between ETA and the Spanish State to agree to the demilitarization of the country and the release of all political prisoners.

Batasuna said the talks be sustained in a climate where violence were totally absent, under the principles of the peace process in Northern Ireland led by Senator George Mitchell.

In this case, all parties agree to use exclusively peaceful means to negotiate, pointing to the total disarmament of paramilitary groups.

Batasuna, however, did not say whether he had the tacit or explicit support of ETA for this new initiative. .

The latest Basque peace process began in March 2006 but ended abruptly less than a year later with a bomb at Madrid airport that killed two people.

ETA has killed nearly 800 people for four decades, and his supporters often cite parallels with Northern Ireland, something that opponents rejected as inadequate due to the high degree of regional autonomy the Basque Country.

(By Elisabeth O'Leary. Published in Spanish by Javier Lopez de Lerida)