Spanish police have arrested six suspected members of Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA in a series of raids today.
The three men and three women were arrested in the Basque country and nearby Navarre in northern Spain, the ministry said in a statement.
The six are suspected of being involved in recruiting new members for ETA, which is classed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
The operation was linked to documents seized from Ibon Fernandez Iradi, a suspected ETA commander arrested in France in December 2003, the Interior Ministry said.
ETA has killed about 850 people in its almost four-decade campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwest France .
The group has been weakened by hundreds of arrests in both France and Spain in recent years and has not carried out a fatal attack for two years.
Spain's Socialist government offered in May to talk to ETA if it laid down its arms.
In response, the group called a ceasefire in June against elected politicians but later said the truce did not apply to government members.
They also stepped up bombings, usually preceded by telephoned warnings.