Basque separatists declare end to "permanent" ceasefire

MADRID (AFP) - The armed Basque separatist group ETA said Tuesday it was ending the "permanent" ceasefire it declared in March last year, according to a statement sent to the Basque newspaper Berria.

"The minimum conditions have not been met to continue the process of negotiations" with Spain's socialist government," the group said.

Beginning on Wednesday it said it "will defend Euskal Herria (the land of Basque speakers) with arms on all fronts."

The group had already broken the ceasefire with a December 30 bombing of a Madrid airport carpark that killed two Ecuadoran men, bringing the toll in its four-decade campaign to achieve independence for the Basque region of Spain and the Basque part of southwestern France to 819 deaths.

That bombing torpedoed the fledgling talks with the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the exclusion of the ETA's political wing from local elections last month further increased tension.

The daily El Pais reported Monday that ETA is planning an "imminent" attack, quoting police sources.

"The police, the civil guard and the CNI (intelligence service) agree on the fact that ETA is preparing a terrorist action in the short term," wrote the newspaper, which has close ties to the government.

"Police sources think that an attack is 'imminent'," the paper reported, adding that a massive security deployment during a military ceremony attended by King Juan Carlos on Sunday reflected the authorities' fears.

"It is most likely that ETA will commit a spectacular but victimless attack to show off its operational capacity and increase its capacity of intimidation and blackmail," El Pais wrote.