Spain set to start ETA peace talks

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain's prime minister says the government is ready to start peace talks with ETA, the strongest indication so far that he believes the Basque separatist group's "permanent" cease-fire declared two months ago is indeed holding.

On his first trip to the troubled northern Basque region since ETA's cease-fire declaration on March 22, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Sundy he would inform Spain's parliament of the government's intentions.

"Today I want to say, in keeping with my earlier announcement, that next month I will communicate to the political parties the start of the process of dialogue toward the end of the violence with ETA," Zapatero said.

ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its long fight for Basque independence. It is classified as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

Shortly after ETA announced its first-ever "permanent" cease-fire, Zapatero declared that if the government confirms it is holding, he would seek parliamentary approval to hold talks with ETA toward permanently ending the violence.

Josep Pique, a leader of the opposition conservative Popular Party, said after Zapatero's announcement Sunday that the conservatives would do "anything possible" to help bring about a permanent peace, but he warned that ETA should not achieve political concessions for halting the killing.

It has been nearly three years since ETA's last fatal attack -- a car bomb that killed two policemen in late May 2003.

Last year, before the cease-fire announcement, Zapatero won parliamentary backing, with the exception of the conservative Popular Party, to hold talks with ETA if it would first renounce violence and lay down its arms.

In the past two months, several government reports have indicated that the cease-fire is holding, despite what the government described as some isolated incidents of low-level street violence, and despite a round of ETA extortion letters received by some businesses, which the government said were sent before the cease-fire announcement.

Last Friday, the government's polling center released a survey showing that nearly 54 percent of Spaniards doubted ETA's intentions while 43 percent were hopeful about the latest cease-fire.

The latest polling numbers indicated that more Spaniards are hopeful under the current conditions and that the Socialist government, under Zapatero, might have a better chance to achieve peace.

Secret talks

During ETA's previous "indefinite" cease-fire in 1998, some 61 percent of Spaniards doubted the group's intentions, while only 31.5 percent remained hopeful.

The temporary cease-fire included a secret round of failed peace talks between ETA and the former conservative government, and a resumption of the killings in early 2000.

Analysts say the police crackdown in recent years in Spain and in France helped push ETA to the point of a cease-fire. There are about 500 ETA prisoners in Spanish jails and an estimated 140 to 150 others in France jails, sources tell CNN.

ETA -- which stands for "Basque Homeland and Liberty" in the ancient Basque language -- wants an independent homeland made up of four Spanish provinces with Basque traditions, along with a portion of southwest France.

But Spain, France and the European Union have all said they do not support an independent Basque state.

Zapatero on Sunday, speaking at a gathering of Socialist party faithful in the Basque town of Barakaldo, also said that he wants to include new wording in Spain's constitution recognizing the victims of terrorism.

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