3 March 2008

MADRID - Police have arrested two suspected ETA members on the Spanish Interior Ministry's most-wanted list, Basque authorities disclosed Sunday.

Oroitz Aldekoa Iturriagaetxeberria, 28, and the 27-year-old Agurne Salterain Albisua were taken into custody outside their safe house in the Basque town of Iurreta. Neither resisted arrest. The two suspects had been sought by police since early December when the alleged leader of ETA's logistics branch Gorka Lupiañez was arrested.

The pair apparently worked under Lupiañez to supply arms and explosives to ETA cells preparing to commit attacks. Police are investigating possible links between the suspects and recent small-scale bombings in the Basque province of Vizcaya, including an attack last Thursday on Basque Socialist Party offices in the town of Derio.

Their arrests followed confirmation from the Interior Ministry that all security forces and the military will be put on a high state of alert from midnight tonight in order to guard against terrorist attacks in the run up to Sunday's general election.

Security is expected to be especially tight at public gatherings and on transport networks in the wake of the train bombings by Islamist terrorists three days before the last general election.

[Copyright EL PAÍS 2008]