Spain says seizure of huge truck bomb averts massacre

Spanish police averted a possible massacre by intercepting a van carrying more than 500 kg of explosives yesterday that Basque separatist guerillas ETA planned to detonate in Madrid, the government said.

Two suspected ETA members were arrested in the early morning police operation, which came two weeks before a general election and 11 days after ETA declared a partial ceasefire limited to the northeastern region of Catalonia.

The men were driving two vans and heading for Madrid when they were stopped in the province of Cuenca, 120 km southeast of Madrid, officials said.

One of the vans contained the explosives which ETA planned to detonate in the Spanish capital "in the coming days", Interior Minister Angel Acebes said, without giving a specific target.

It was one of the biggest bombs ETA had attempted to use in recent times, he told a news conference.

"The magnificent efficiency of the Civil Guard (police)... has avoided, without question, a massacre," Acebes said.

The van contained 506 kg of chloratite explosive, 30 kg of dynamite and a timing device, Acebes said.

A bomb of that size could have caused a 35 metre crater, serious damage in a 100-metre radius and hurt people 1.5 km away, he said.

ETA, listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in a campaign for an independent state in northern Spain and southwestern France.

The centre-right Popular Party (PP) government has taken a hard line against ETA, and the organisation has been weakened in recent months by scores of arrests in both Spain and France.

ETA caused a sensation in Spain's election campaign this month by announcing a truce limited to the Catalonia region, a move that drew condemnation from the major political parties.

ETA made clear, however, that it remained committed to the "armed struggle" elsewhere in Spain.

The election campaign has also been shaken by controversy over an admission by leftist Catalan nationalist politician Josep-Lluis Carod-Rovira that he met leaders of ETA in January.

Carod was forced to resign as the number two official in the Catalan government.

The Spanish government accused Carod of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire for Catalonia. Carod refused to disclose what he spoke about with ETA but said no agreement was reached.

Opinion polls give the PP a comfortable lead over the opposition Socialists two weeks before the poll.

Sunday's events showed the importance of continuing the crackdown on ETA and that negotiations with the group were misguided, Acebes said.