国际英语新闻:ETA offer to negotiate over disarmament, dissollution

MADRID, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Basque separatist group ETA on Saturday offered to open negotiations toward disarmament and dissolution of the group.

The statement was published in "Naiz", a digital publication linked to the Basque newspaper "Gara" which has close ties to the radical left of the Basque independence movement.

ETA said the group was willing to negotiate in order to "bring home the prisoners and exiles" of the group, referring to the group members serving in Spanish prisons as well as those that are currently on the run from police.

It added that the talks, if successful, "would bring about a definitive end of the armed conflict."

The group said a full statement is expected to be published on Sunday.

ETA, whose 45 year struggle for the independence of Basque region cost 829 lives, called a definitive ceasefire in October 2011, around a month before the general election.

However, the group has still to announce its disarmament and dissolution, while both Spanish and French security forces have continued to hunt down ETA suspects who are still at large with over 50 detained in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile over 700 ETA members are currently serving sentences in Spanish jails and ETA would hope to link any permanent dissolution to a long term amnesty, while assuring that until their release prisoners were at least held in jails in the Basque region.