Bombs explode on Spanish roads after ETA warning

MADRID, March 9 (Reuters) Two bombs exploded near highways in northern Spain today after a warning that five devices had been planted by Basque separatists ETA, who have stepped up their violent campaign for independence in recent weeks.

Authorities said the explosions were quite small and there were no reports of injuries.

Another warning came in the early afternoon that a sixth bomb had been planted in the coastal city of San Sebastian.

Police cordoned off the area.

After months of relative quiet, ETA has resumed its bombing campaign in the last few weeks, scotching hopes fanned by Spain's Socialist government that the group could be close to calling a truce.

The bombs coincided with a regional general strike called by Batasuna -- a separatist party outlawed for its links to ETA -- to protest against a Basque government ban on people publicly paying tribute to two ETA members who died in jail last week.

The strike had minimal following in the region, politicians and business leaders said.

''ETA has no political or social mileage left in the Basque country,'' Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said.

The Basque employers' association Confebask said most sectors were unaffected, with the exception of shops where business was briefly interrupted by pickets.

The Basque government said 1 per cent of its employees had heeded the strike call, around 0.5 percent of health service workers and 3 or 4 per cent of people working in education.

ETA has killed about 800 people since 1968 in its fight to carve out an independent Basque state straddling northern Spain and southwestern France.

The group, branded a terrorist group by the European Union and United States, has not killed anybody since 2003.

''The recent intensified bombing campaign could mean that ETA wants to show that if it lays down arms it is not because it has run out of options but that it is voluntarily renouncing violence,'' a spokesman for the moderate Basque party PNV told Spanish radio.

''That's the positive way of thinking about it because the more pessimistic way simply shows the terrorists have not taken on board the fact that Basques want them to abandon the armed struggle once and for all,'' Josu Erkoreka added.

Spain's Socialist government has been criticised by the right-wing opposition and families of ETA victims as being too soft on the group and having contacts with them.

Last month, ETA released a statement saying ''dialogue and negotiation are the only paths towards a resolution of the conflict'' but it stopped short of calling a ceasefire.

REUTERS KD VC2205