Two suspected members of the armed Basque separatist movement ETA arrested in Spain last week have said they received weapons training in Venezuela, a court document released yesterday showed.

During police questioning following their arrest the two detainees, Juan Carlos Besance and Javier Atristain, said they took part in the course in July and August 2008, according to a court order obtained by AFP.

Police detained the two on Wednesday along with a third suspected ETA member in the Basque town of Villabona and seized 101 kilos of explosives, a gun and several detonators and timers as part of the operation. Venezuela’s ambassador to Spain, Isaias Rodriguez, swiftly denied any links between Venezuela and ETA.

“The Venezuelan government is not linked in any way with any terrorist organisation, especially ETA,” he told Spanish public radio.

Spain has asked Venezuelan authorities to provide any information it may have regarding the training of suspected ETA members in the former Spanish colony, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in March rejected allegations from a Spanish judge that his government had helped ETA members link up with members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

ETA is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, amongst others. It is blamed for the deaths of 829 people in its four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings to force the creation of a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France.