Basque Group ETA Urges Support Of Banned Parties

The appeal follows a recent call by one of the parties for voters to endorse it on ballots rather than abstain on March 1.

Basque separatist group ETA on Friday urged voters to support left-wing parties that back independence in regional elections on Sunday, even though the parties have been banned.

The appeal follows a recent call by one of the parties for voters to endorse it on ballots rather than abstain on March 1.

Spain's Supreme Court earlier this month banned the Basque nationalist parties Democracia 3 Millones and Askatasuna from taking part in the elections because of their connections to the armed separatist group.

A suspected ETA bomb exploded in Madrid shortly after the ruling, but no one was hurt.

In its appeal, published in the local newspaper Gara, ETA said: "The pro-independence left...can open the doors to change."

Without the participation of the independence parties, the Sunday poll would amount to "anti-democratic regional elections" that would lead to "the parliament of fascism".

The reference was to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco which suppressed regional rights in Spain.

In the recent past, parties linked to ETA have obtained around 15 percent of the vote in Basque elections.

Spain's Socialist government is hoping to gain power in the northeastern Basque Country in the vote that will test its popularity in a country hit by recession and political scandal.

The Basque Nationalist Party has controlled the regional government since 1980. Polls show a revival in support for the Socialists among Basques tired of four decades of violence, but they may have to enter a pact with their bitter conservative rivals, the Popular Party.

A bomb planted on Monday at a Socialist office by suspected ETA rebels reminded voters once again of the often violent undertone of Basque politics.

An armed campaign by ETA since the 1960s to carve out a Basque homeland straddling the Pyrenees has killed more than 800 people.

In another regional vote, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialists are bidding to retain control in northwestern Galicia.