Police arrest seven ETA suspects

MADRID, Spain -- Police have arrested seven suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA in a series of pre-dawn raids seizing weapons and explosives, the Interior Ministry said.

More than 100 police and members of an elite commando force launched the raids at 2:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Thursday on apartments in the Basque towns of Mondragon and Aramayona.

Further searches were continuing during the day, Spanish Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy said.

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Among the seven were three brothers and a female lawyer, reports said.

The haul of explosives, 35 kilograms (80 pounds) of dynamite and bomb-making equipment such as detonators, timers and fuses, would have been enough to destroy a building, police said.

"Thirty-five kilos of dynamite are enough to blow up a building with no problem whatsoever," Rajoy said in Valencia after a meeting with his French counterpart, Daniel Vaillant.

Homemade rockets and other materials often used in street violence by young supporters of ETA were also found, he added.

Among other items confiscated was a map of the northern city of Logrono and markings on the spot where a powerful car bomb blamed on ETA exploded on Sunday.

No one had been hurt in the incident which happened on the eve of U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Spain, but the explosion caused extensive damage to property.

Three of the detainees are brothers, Rajoy said. State radio said another is a woman lawyer.

ETA has claimed, or been blamed, for 31 killings since it ended a 14-month-old ceasefire in December 1999. The armed group has killed about 800 people since its campaign for an independent Basque homeland began in 1968.