ETA calls for ‘international mediation’ to resolve armed conflict

The call, published in a Basque newspaper today, came two weeks after Madrid had dismissed the group's latest unilateral ceasefire as "inadequate". Madrid was insisting that the group must renounce violence forever.

ETA's campaign for independence from Spain had cost more than 800 lives since 1968.

A previous unilateral ceasefire in 2006 had led to preliminary talks, but the government had broken off contact after a bomb at Madrid airport had killed two people.

"Faced with the stubbornness of France and Spain, ETA has decided again to launch the boat of opportunity for the democratic resolution of the conflict," the group said in excerpts of the communiqué published by the newspaper Gara.

ETA said it took the decision "without throwing anchor, ready to navigate in deeper waters".

Gara reported that ETA has called on the international community to join the process to produce a "permanent, just and democratic" resolution to the conflict.

ETA had called two ceasefires in the past but had abandoned them both. It was unclear if the latest was meant as a permanent or temporary move.

Earlier this month, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba had insisted ETA had broken too many ceasefires to be trusted.

He had called for "a definitive and unconditional abandonment" of ETA's violent campaign.