Spanish government denies that ETA wanted to attack ferry (Roundup)

Jul 12, 2007, 9:15 GMT

London/Madrid - The Spanish Interior Ministry on Thursday denied reports that the armed Basque separatist group ETA planned to attack a ferry transporting thousands of passengers between Spain and Britain.

'These are speculations which police have not verified,' a spokesman for the ministry said.

Aritz Argingoniz, an ETA suspect detained Tuesday in the northern Spanish city of Santander, carried notes on a ferry linking Santander with Plymouth, according to Spanish reports.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, however, said Aritz was planning an imminent car bombing in a parking lot next to a public building in Santander.

'We do not speculate on notes carried by ETA members,' the spokesman said, adding that Rubalcaba had given the correct information.

Britain's Daily Telegraph had reported that ETA's possible targets included the Pont-Aven ferry, which sails twice a week between Plymouth and Santander with up to 2,400 passengers on board.

Pont-Aven operator Brittany Ferries insisted there was no threat to the ferry.

Spanish and French police have foiled a string of attacks since ETA announced the end of its 14-month ceasefire on June 5. A total of 13 suspected ETA activists have been detained in France, Spain, Mexico and Canada.

Spanish and French police have seized hundreds of kilos of explosives.

Most recently on Wednesday, police captured two ETA suspects near Angouleme in south-western France. One of them was Iker Mendizabal Cubas, head of ETA's arms and explosives supply network.

Mendizabal and his companion Juan Jose Garcia Gonzalez were travelling in a stolen car which was stopped by police. They were armed and carried fake identity documents.

ETA has killed more than 800 people in its campaign of nearly four decades for an independent Basque state comprising parts of what are now northern Spain and southern France.