The suspects are believed to be involved in ETA recruitment

Police in Spain and France have arrested 34 people suspected of links to the Basque separatist group ETA.

Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said 29 people were arrested in raids across the Spanish Basque country and Navarra while the other five were held in Bayonne and Bordeaux in France.

He said they were suspected of being part of "new structures of support" for the militant nationalist group ETA which has waged a 35-year campaign for a sovereign Basque state.

He said the arrests would hinder the ETA's reorganisation of and "sends a clear message to those who could be in the process of recruitment" to ETA.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said the operation on Wednesday was "one of the most important and extensive operations that has been carried out in the fight against terror".

Youth group

The suspects are believed to have been involved in carrying out recruitment, organisation and information-gathering tasks for ETA.

The arrests are reported to have been made on orders from Spanish anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon, and a French judge.

Judge Garzon, a high-profile investigator, has spearheaded Spain's recent crackdown on ETA suspects.

French police said the five arrested in Bayonne and Bordeaux were four women and a male student who did not have a police record.

According to the Reuters news agency, the five were connected to the banned radical Basque youth group Segi.

In July, ETA gave a coded warning before two bombs exploded in the Spanish resorts of Alicante and Benidorm, injuring at least 13 people.

The last fatal attack in ETA's campaign, which has cost more than 840 lives since 1968, was in May when a bomb killed two police officers.