Two ETA bombs hit Spain

The Basque separatist group ETA set off two small bombs alongside highways south of Madrid yesterday just as millions of Spaniards hit the road to begin summer holidays, officials said.

There were no injuries, only minor damage, and the roads were reopened within an hour, although one highway experienced a 20-kilometre traffic jam.

A caller in the name of ETA forewarned of the blasts by phoning the Basque newspaper Gara, the paper said.

The blasts hit near Toledo, some 75 kilometres southwest of Madrid, and near Ciudad Real, around 130 kilometres south of the capital.

Both roads are used by some of the 7.2 million holidaymakers that traffic officials expect to take to the roads this weekend.

Spaniards traditionally spend the month of August on vacation, and ETA typically targets beach resorts for bombs during the month.

ETA remains western Europe's most active home-grown guerilla group. It has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for Basque independence from Spain and France, but has not killed anyone in more than two years amid a sustained police crackdown that has landed hundreds in jail.

Four more ETA suspects were arrested in France on Thursday, officials said. ETA's last significant attack came on July 12, when four bombs exploded near a power station. As is commonplace, a caller warned of the blasts ahead of time.

In May the government offered to talk to the group if it laid down its arms.

Bombings have continued since then, but ETA called a ceasefire last month against elected politicians. However, guerillas said in an internal bulletin that the truce did not include government members, according to news reports.

ETA has issued repeated calls for negotiations but the government considers ETA a terrorist organisation and says it must stop violence if it wants to talk.