The Basque regional premier said in an interview published on Sunday that Spain's government was in talks with banned separatist group Batasuna, but the ruling Socialist party denied negotiations were taking place.
Juan Jose Ibarretxe said in an interview in Basque newspaper Deia that his government and the Socialists "are already talking with Batasuna", which is banned in Spain as the political wing of separatist guerrilla group ETA.
"That you cannot put conditions on dialogue is just as obvious as the fact that we are already in dialogue," Ibarretxe, who recently secured a third term, was quoted as saying.
Ramon Jauregui, a Socialist parliamentary spokesman from the Basque country, strongly denied talks were taking place and reiterated that the government would only enter negotiations if ETA abandoned its arms.
A spokesman for the opposition Popular Party, which lost power in March 2004, slammed the Socialists for deceiving public opinion. The government has won parliamentary approval to hold talks with ETA only if it abandons its arms. Batasuna denies it is the political wing of ETA, although it shares the aim of an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-west France and refuses to condemn ETA killings. Its spokesman Arnaldo Otegi has served four years in prison for an ETA kidnapping.
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