London - A leading convicted member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA wanted by Spain appeared in court in Northern Ireland Monday for an extradition hearing.

Ignacio de Juana Chaos, 53, arrived at the court in Belfast, flanked by his lawyer and cheered by flag-waving supporters.

The convicted ETA terrorists is wanted by the Spanish authorities on charges of praising or supporting terrorism in a letter that was read out in his name at a rally in Spain.

He is believed to have lived in West Belfast since his controversial release from prison in Spain in August.

The ETA activist had only served 21 years of a sentence of more than 3,000 years for participating in 11 attacks that killed 25 people when he was freed.

The new charges of praising terrorism were brought just a few days after his release, but de Juana failed to show up for the hearing in Madrid.

Spain's top anti-terrorism court issued an international warrant for his arrest on November 11, requesting his extradition from Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom.

De Juana was accompanied at Monday's proceedings by Kevin Winters, a Belfast lawyer acting on his behalf.

However, lawyer Stephen Ritchie, representing the Spanish government, said the case could not proceed immediately.

He said de Juana "will be arrested shortly by agreement and then the matter can be brought before the court at some stage." An interpreter had yet to be engaged.

ETA has traditionally close links with Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland via the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which, however, renounced the armed struggle in 2005 and has since disbanded. (dpa)