Spain confirms arrest of ETA military leader

Police have arrested the military chief of ETA and eight other suspected members, Spain said yesterday, making Jurdan Martitegi the third leader of the armed Basque separatist group to be captured in under six months.

Three units of French paramilitary police closed in on Mr Martitegi in a Pyrenees mountain town near Perpignan in southern France, late on Saturday afternoon, as part of a joint operation with Spanish security forces.

Spanish police also arrested six other suspected ETA members on Saturday night in the cities of Vitoria, Bilbao and Renteria in Spain's Basque country.

The capture of the five men and one woman, aged between 26 and 32, broke up an ETA cell allegedly being formed by Alexander Uriarte, media said.

Mr Martitegi was carrying a pistol but gave in without a fight, along with two other suspected ETA members who were also armed, the government said in a statement.

"I am Jurdan Martitegi," the 28-year-old, considered ETA's top leader, told police according to Spain's Interior Ministry.

Mr Martitegi and a second man thought to be his bodyguard were meeting alleged ETA cell leader Mr Uriarte, 29, when the three were arrested.

Police seized three pistols, a stolen car with false plates and bomb making equipment and manuals during the raid in Montauriol, about 16 kilometres north of the Spanish border.

Nearly two metres tall, strongly built and known as "the giant", Mr Martitegi is regarded as one of the most dangerous men in Spain and France, where his photo appears on wanted posters in airports and train stations.

He had been on the run since July when Spanish police broke up ETA's main attack unit, known as the "Vizcaya cell", blamed for bombing numerous police stations and government buildings.

ETA is held responsible for the deaths of more than 800 people in its 40-year campaign of shootings and bombings to carve out an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.

Spain's Socialist government ended peace negotiations with ETA after it killed two people in a car bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport in 2006, effectively breaking a ceasefire.

Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has since taken a hard line against the group and over 20 people have been arrested in France and Spain this year for suspected ETA membership.

Earlier on Saturday, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said chances of government negotiations with ETA had finished for ever and there was now a debate within the group over whether to abandon its armed struggle.

Mr Martitegi took over command of ETA in December after French police captured the previous military leader, Aitzol Iriondo, also known as Balak.

Saturday's arrests mark a further blow for ETA after Spain's ruling Socialists won control of the Basque regional government in March, promising to heal wounds left by nationalist extremists and separatist gunmen.