Bilbao, Spain - The trial of the prime minister of Spain's semi-autonomous Basque region began Thursday on charges of having met with the illegal Batasuna party which is regarded as the political wing of the militant separatist group ETA.

Juan Jose Ibarretxe was the first Basque prime minister to be tried on criminal charges.

Ibarretxe arrived in the Bilbao court along with seven other accused including Basque Socialist leaders Patxi Lopez and Rodolfo Ares and Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi.

The accused also included four other Batasuna representatives arriving from prisons, where they were being held on separate charges.

Bilbao, Spain  - Basque separatists Wednesday hailed the vote giving Greenland more au

Bilbao, Spain  - Several political parties in Spain's northern Basque region on Thursday criticized the militant Basque separatist group ETA, which threatened with new attacks to force the government to negotiate with it.

ETA would not stay with its "arms crossed" but maintain a "resistance against repression," the group said in a communique made public by the Basque newspaper Gara on Wednesday.

Bilbao, Spain - Several political parties in Spain's northern Basque region on Thursday criticized the militant Basque separatist group ETA, which threatened with new attacks to force the government to negotiate with it.

ETA would not stay with its "arms crossed" but maintain a "resistance against repression," the group said in a communique made public by the Basque newspaper Gara on Wednesday.

ETA said it was convinced that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government would resume the attempt at negotiations it abandoned in December 2006 after ETA violated its ceasefire with a car bombing, killing two people at Madrid airport.

Bilbao - At least six people were injured Sunday morning in a car bomb explosion near a police station at the northern Spanish town of Ondarroa near Bilbao, the second such attack within hours.

The Basque separatist group ETA was suspected in the explosion, which took place without warning. Two policemen and four passersby were among the injured.