ETA declares truce in Spain's Catalonia region

The outlawed Basque separatist group ETA called a truce limited to the Spanish region of Catalonia yesterday in a shock move amid a general election campaign obsessed with Spain's territorial unity.

"ETA informs the Basque and Catalan people of the suspension of its campaign of armed action in Catalonia as of January 1, 2004," one of two masked ETA spokesmen said in a video broadcast on Basque television.

"A revolutionary salute to all pro-independence Catalans," the spokesman said, speaking against a backdrop of Basque and Catalan flags.

As in the Basque Country, nationalist leaders in Spain's largely autonomous Catalonia region surrounding Barcelona seek greater self rule from the central government in Madrid.

The partial truce is the first of any kind by ETA since it announced the end of a 14-month ceasefire in November 1999. After that unilateral ceasefire, which applied to all of Spain, ETA launched its first deadly attack in January 2000 and has been active ever since.

ETA, listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a campaign for an independent state in northern Spain and southwestern France.