PARIS (AFP) - French police arrested 17 people and discovered a cache of heavy weapons during raids in southwestern France that targeted suspected members of Spain`s armed Basque separatist group ETA, officials said.
The interior ministry said heavy weapons, documents and large sums of cash had been discovered.
It said the suspects included "two Spanish fugitives sought for several years who held senior responsibilities in the movement".
Around 140 specialist officers, including members of France`s anti-terrorist brigade and intelligence services, swooped on properties in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region of the country which borders the Spanish Basque Country.
An anti-terrorist investigating magistrate, Laurence Le Vert, arrived in the town of Urrugne in the region Sunday to oversee ongoing searches.
A Spanish official said a Spanish truckdriver had been arrested on Sunday in Burgos, in central Spain, as part of the operation, adding that the man`s wife was among those arrested in France.
ETA has been blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people in a violent 36-year campaign for an independent Basque homeland comprising parts of northern Spain and southwestern France.
It has been weakened in recent years by repeated raids in France and Spain and its political wing, Batasuna, has been banned in Spain.
But last year it announced that Spain`s economy, and in particular the tourist industry, had become a priority target and there were a spate of small bomb attacks in August in coastal resorts in northern Spain, reportedly designed to show ETA continued to exist.
In September ETA vowed in a video to continue its armed struggle until its campaign for an independent homeland was won.
"The conflict will end when the rights of our people are recognised and respected," the group said in the video.
It also criticised the French government for doing nothing to help the country`s Basque people except "offer them a slow death" and urged Basques in France and Spain to join together to seek independence.
The last fatal attack by ETA was in May 2003, when two policemen were killed in the northern province of Navarra in a car bomb attack.
The conservative government of Jose Maria Aznar, which lost power in the March 14 general election, had vowed to crush ETA during its eight years in power.
When bombs exploded on four Madrid-bound commuter trains three days before the election, killing 191 people and injuring around 1,200, Aznar`s government pinned the blame on ETA.
ETA denied any involvement and evidence soon emerged to indicate the atrocity had been the work of extremists believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda.