The jailed top leader of Batasuna, the banned political wing of ETA, said the Basque separatist group should declare a permanent ceasefire, in an interview published yesterday.

Arnaldo Otegi told Spain’s El Pais daily that if he had the ETA leadership before him, he would ask them to renounce violence and declare a “unilateral and permanent truce which can be verified by the international community.”

“There is no other path to independence other than those that follow the peaceful and democratic paths,” he told the newspaper.

“Weapons, all weapons, should disappear definitively from the Basque political equation.”

Mr Otega, who was jailed for two years in March for “glorifying” terrorism in remarks he made at a 2005 rally in memory of a jailed ETA member, Jose Maria Sagarduy, said ETA was not likely to resort to violence as it had announced “the end of armed action.

“But if these incidents resume (Batasuna)... will oppose them,” he said.

Batasuna was outlawed in 2003 for its links with ETA, which is held responsible for nearly 830 deaths in a 41-year campaign for independence for the Basque Country of northern Spain and southwestern France.

It wants the ban on its activities lifted so it can take part in municipal elections next year.

Last week Spain’s secretary of state for security, Antonio Camacho, said Batasuna would not be in a position to take part in the elections unless it broke off its ties to ETA or ETA permanently abandoned violence.

But Mr Otegi said there was “no organic link” between ETA and Batasuna.

Asked about Mr Otegi’s interview at a rally of his Socialist Party in the northern town of Ponferrada, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said his government had no plans to allow Batasuna to stand in the elections.