ETA suspects arrested in France

The suspects have been remanded in custody in the south-western French town of Bayonne

MADRID, Spain -- Two suspected senior members of the Basque separatist group ETA have been arrested in France, officials said.

Bixente Goikoetchea-Barrandarian, named by Spain's Interior Ministry as ETA's deputy political leader, was arrested with an unidentified woman also suspected of ETA membership, Reuters news agency reported.

The pair were apprehended in a village in the Pyrenees-Atlantique region of south-western France over the weekend.

ETA has been blamed for more than 800 deaths in a 33-year campaign of violence for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-west France.

RESOURCES ETA: Violence in Spain

Spanish Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy told Reuters the arrested man was "one of the heads of ETA's political apparatus and probably one of the top leaders, if not the person responsible for producing the terrorist organisation's reports."

French police said Goikoetchea-Barrandarian, 42, was carrying a gun at the time of the arrest, as well as ETA documents.

France launched an international warrant against Goikoetchea-Barrandarian in 1995 on suspicion of terrorist links.

Spanish authorities told Reuters that the arrest of five suspected ETA leaders in France last month had "decapitated" the operation of the group, which has claimed responsibility for 35 killings since it ended a cease-fire in December 1999.