In a statement sent to two Basque newspapers, the Basque separatist group ETA Tuesday announced it would end its cease-fire truce at midnight Tuesday.

ETA attributed its move to the Spanish government persistently detaining, torturing and persecuting its members. ETA also sought to blame the government for derailing the peace process, adding that the group would be "active on all fronts to defend the Basque homeland."

ETA continued to say that "the minimum conditions have not been met to continue the process of negotiations" with the government.

In a brief televised address, Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero said, "ETA's decision goes against the desired path for Basque and Spanish society -- the path of peace." He vowed to take tough measures to counter the separatist group.

Formed in 1959, ETA's mission statement is to secure an independent Basque state in the Basque region straddling the Spanish-French border. Over the past four decades, their repeated assassinations, kidnappings and bombings have claimed close to a 1,000 lives.

ETA declared a permanent truce on March 22, 2006 and within three months, the Spanish government had agreed to open talks. However, an ETA bomb at Madrid airport last December that killed two people pushed Zapatero's government to call off the peace process.

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2007)