A former leader of the banned political wing of the armed Basque separatist movement ETA believes the group will soon give up violence or be defeated, a Spanish daily said Sunday.

Last month a number of prominent separatists close to the banned Batasuna party called for the Basque question to be resolved through a democratic process and without violence, although they did not explicitly criticise ETA.

"One can't go back" after making such a declaration "and I believe they (ETA) will rejoin" the movement, former Batasuna spokesman Arnaldo Otegi said according to excerpts of an intercepted conversation cited by the daily El Mundo.

"The people want that and they (ETA) have two choices, either they rejoin the process or they commit suicide," the jailed Basque independence leader said on March 2, according to the newspaper.

El Mundo did not reveal how the conversation was intercepted and if Otegi had been aware of the eavesdropping.

Otegi was sentenced on March 2 to two years in jail after being convicted on charges of glorifying terrorism.

He had been held in jail since October 2008 for trying to rebuild Batasuna, which was outlawed in 2003 for its links with ETA, under the guise of a new organisation.

ETA, considered a terrorist organisation by both the European Union and the United States, is held responsible for 828 deaths in a 41-year campaign for independence for the Basque region of northern Spain and southwestern France.

The group announced a "permanent ceasefire" in March 2006 but months later reversed course and in December 2006 set off a bomb at a car park at Madrid's international airport.

After formally calling off the ceasefire and peace talks in June 2007, the Spanish government redoubled its efforts against ETA with arrests over the past three years of its leaders believed to have severely dented its operations.