Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA called for a peace process in a letter published in a Basque newspaper on Friday but said it would continue fighting until Spain respected Basque rights. The group, which has killed about 850 people in its four-decade campaign for independence, also claimed responsibility for nine recent attacks in its letter to Gara newspaper.
"It is essential to open a democratic process without limits and involving everyone. ETA is totally prepared to become involved in such a process," the paper quoted the group as saying.
The group, which in April also called for a peace process in a press interview, made no mention of a cease-fire.
"ETA will continue to fight until new opportunities are opened," the paper's online version quoted the group as saying.
The letter comes after a string of guerrilla attacks seen as a snub to a government proposal backed by parliament in May to talk to ETA if it lays down its arms.
It also comes as the leader of banned separatist party Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi, who says he would be a main spokesman in any peace process, has been charged for belonging to ETA and is now on bail.
Otegi said that jailing him showed the government might not be ready for peace and had said before that if ETA did lay down its arms the separatist cause might be ignored.
ETA, which has not killed anyone for two years, claimed responsibility for nine attacks, including several targeted at businesses that had failed to pay protection money, the so-called "revolutionary tax".
It also claimed an attack on Zaragoza airport last Friday, a car bomb attack in Madrid which injured 52 people, and "action" at the mausoleum of former dictator Francisco Franco in May.
At the time police said there had been a false alarm in the name of ETA at the monument and a day earlier a small device - which police did not link to ETA - had exploded.
The group, which has been weakened in recent years by dozens of arrests of alleged leaders and other members, wants a Basque homeland carved out of northern Spain and south-west France.
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