Basque police find car bomb in northern Spain

updated 4:32 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2007

MADRID, Spain - Basque police found about 200 pounds of explosives in a drum near an abandoned car outside the town of Amorebieta in northern Spain, a police spokesman said. It had been rigged to be used in an attack, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the prime minister toured the bombed wreckage of Madrid’s airport parking garage Thursday and warned the Basque separatist group ETA that neither the Spanish government nor its citizens will be intimidated.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was escorted by police and firefighters as he visited the shattered concrete structure at the airport where a bomb exploded Saturday, killing one man and leaving another missing. ETA has not claimed responsibility, but the armed group is the only suspect in the bombing, which left the 9-month-old peace process in ruins.

“It will achieve nothing. It is not going to intimidate anyone,” Zapatero said.

Zapatero said he is determined to end ETA’s nearly four-decade campaign of violence, aimed at winning an independent Basque homeland, but he gave no indication of what his next move will be.

The blast appeared to shatter a cease-fire that the armed Basque separatist group ETA declared in March and said was permanent, although the group’s outlawed political wing said Wednesday the cease-fire was still intact and the peace process was salvageable.

Zapatero’s government, however, has canceled plans for talks with the group.

Before the bombing, ETA and its political supporters had complained that the peace process was stalled because the government refused to make preliminary concessions. ETA has asked that its prisoners be moved from jails around Spain to the Basque region, and that the government halt police arrests and trials of ETA suspects and pro-independence politicians.

ENCARTA SPAIN: Maps, facts and figures

The attack, which came one day after Zapatero said he was optimistic about the peace process, was a major political setback for the prime minister, who faces a general election in early 2008.

Zapatero made ETA’s dissolution a centerpiece of his political agenda. When he announced in June he would negotiate with the group, he infuriated conservatives who opposed talks with what they consider an active terrorist organization.

The Basque Interior Department said the find of the unexploded bomb in northern Spain resulted from an investigation following the discovery of an arms cache last month near Amorebieta. About 120 pounds of explosives were found in that operation.

Bomb disposal experts removed the bomb from the site and took it to a police warehouse, where they were awaiting instructions from a judge to dismantle it.

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