UN Council condemns ETA over Spanish bombing

8.35am - By EVELYN LEOPOLD

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council has condemned the Basque separatist group ETA as perpetrators of the deadly bombings in Spain, although members had no way of determining the veracity of the charge.

Despite some hesitations over the resolution, members voted 15-0 to accept the word of the Spanish government, which immediately blamed ETA for the simultaneous explosions that killed 190 people and injured more than 1200 on packed trains in Madrid.

The resolution "condemns in the strongest terms the bomb attacks in Madrid, Spain, perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA on 11 March 2004, in which many lives were claimed and people injured, and regard such act, like any act of terrorism, as a threat to peace and security."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks across the Spanish capital three days before a national election. But Spain, which has a seat on the council, insisted ETA was to blame and brushed aside suggestions Muslim militants, angry at Madrid's support for the US-led war in Iraq, were behind the attacks.

"The Spanish government stated that and the Spanish delegation has asked the council to put this element in their resolution and members of the council accepted it," said France's ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, who holds this month's Security Council's presidency.

US Ambassador John Negroponte said Washington was satisfied with the Spanish government's explanation. "It is the judgment that these attacks were carried out by the ETA and we have no information to the contrary," he told reporters.

He said Spain believed the blasts had hallmarks of an ETA attack because of other threats in previous weeks in the run-up to elections on Sunday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was more cautious and did not name any perpetrators.

"It is indeed with profound shock and indignation that I learned about the terrorist attack in Madrid today. Once again we see senseless killing of innocent people," he said.

"Killing of innocent people can not be justified regardless of the cause," Annan said, adding he offered his "deepest sympathy" to Spanish King Juan Carlos I, the government, friends of the dead and injured survivors.

"I hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice," Annan told reporters.

Spain's deputy ambassador, Ana Maria Menendez, told reporters after the meeting, telling reporters, "In this moment of grief and pain and suffering for the Spanish people, we have been comforted by the unanimous and very fast adoption of resolution 1530."

She called the measure an "unequivocal condemnation of the terrible, terrible terrorist attacks which took place this morning in Madrid."

- REUTERS