Five small ETA blasts in Madrid after warning

MADRID - Armed Basque separatist group ETA exploded five small bombs on motorways around Madrid as Spain celebrated the 27th anniversary of its constitution with a ceremony in the parliament building.

The bombs went off at the side of three of Madrid's ring roads and one each on the motorway exits to Barcelona and La Coruna, said a source at Spain's anti-terrorist forces.

"Five bombs have exploded on roads around Madrid," the source told Reuters. "They are small and have caused no injuries." The explosions, between 3pm and 3:15pm (0300 and 0315 NZT), were condemned by Spain's Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso.

"This is the latest example of senseless violence and only confirms that we must continue to fight ETA with all the forces of the law and the democratic state," Alonso said in a statement.

Basque police said motorway assistance association DYA had received a warning in the name of ETA that it had placed bombs around Madrid.

Earlier, Santander airport in northern Spain was reopened after being closed for several hours while police searched for a bomb after a warning in the name of ETA.

It threatened to launch a grenade attack on the airport and the building was evacuated and flights diverted.

The caller to newspaper Gara - ETA's usual channel for announcements -- said the attack would happen between noon and 2pm but the deadline passed and there without any explosion, officials said.

"We are going to keep a security team there ... taking into account that on other similar occasions bombs have exploded with significant delays, even several days afterwards," Government Delegate Agustin Ibanez told state television.

The threat comes on the day Spain celebrates its constitution, which some regional nationalists and separatists see as standing in the way of greater self-rule for the regions.

None of the Basque parties represented in parliament attended the celebration.

It also follows a reported statement from ETA, which wants to create an independent state cut out of Spain and France, that it will not call a ceasefire before it receives concessions.

The report in Basque newspaper El Correo from ETA's internal bulletin undermines recent speculation that the group could lay down its arms.

The Spanish government said in May it would talk to ETA if it did but has since repeated that it will only accept a complete halt to violence as a condition for negotiations.

Since then, ETA has made calls for talks and announced a partial ceasefire for elected politicians, although it then said that did not include the Spanish government.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero responded to the news of the Santander bomb threat saying the end of ETA might be near.

"ETA has not killed anyone for more than two years, fortunately, and 200 suspected members of the terrorist group ETA have been arrested over the last two years," Zapatero told reporters.

"We can ... harbour a prudent hope, a prudent hope, as to the end of violence," he added.

ETA has killed some 850 people since 1968 and in the last two years has frequently set off non-fatal bombs. The last attack blamed on the group, which is also considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, was earlier this month.

ETA has used the tactic of attacking Madrid in holiday periods in the past. Last July it bombed roads amid a holiday exodus and exploded five bombs in petrol stations around Madrid in December 2004.

- REUTERS