Small bomb explodes in Spanish port

A small bomb exploded at a port in northern Spain yesterday after a warning call in the name of Basque separatists ETA, but no one was injured, officials said.

A local newspaper received a call an hour before the bomb went off and police cleared the area. No damage was caused when it did explode, a government spokesman said.

"Listen carefully. I'm calling in the name of ETA. A bomb is going to explode at 13.30 in the... port," the spokesman quoted the caller as saying.

Today is a public holiday in most of Spain and coastal areas are full of visitors.

"We are very near the Basque country and this is an especially touristy area... that's the only explanation (why Asturias is being targeted)," said Dolores Alvarez, Mayor of Llanes, a town in the northern region of Asturias.

She said the bomb was in a rubbish bag. Before this weekend, four small bombs had exploded at resorts on Spain's northern coast earlier this month, injuring two people, in what appeared to mark a return to violence by ETA after a long silence.

Bombs exploded within 10 minutes of each other in the towns of Gijon, in Asturias, and Santander on Thursday. Five days earlier, two explosions shook the north coast resorts of Ribadesella and San Vicente de la Barquera.

ETA, which is fighting for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France, has in the past staged summer bombing campaigns aimed at undermining Spain's lucrative tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.

Spanish authorities warned earlier this month that ETA, which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organisation and which has killed some 850 people since 1968, could be planning a summer bombing campaign.