An estimated 25,000 people have marched in the Basque region of Spain to protest against the banned armed separatist movement, ETA.

The rally in the coastal town of Zarauz follows the funeral of a local politician who was killed by a car bomb on Friday. Police blamed the attack on the guerilla group.

Silent vigils were also held in a number of Basque cities.

Jose Ignacio Iruretagoyena was driving to work on Friday when a bomb planted under his seat exploded, blowing off his arm and leg. Paramedics tried to revive him but failed.

"Stop the killing"

The 35-year-old Popular Party politician is reported to have dismissed his bodyguards, who would have checked his car for explosives, a few days earlier because he was unhappy with restrictions imposed on his movements.

Maria Jose Imaz, the widow of Popular Party politician, Jose Ignacio Iruretagoyena

During a funeral mass attended by several government ministers in a crowded Zarauz church, a priest read a message from Jose Maria Setien, archbishop of San Sebastian, pleading for ETA to "put a stop to the killing."

"The blood of these murders can never be the road to peace," said Mr Setien.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar also called on people in the Basque region to show their opposition to nationalist violence.

He promised that his conservative Popular Party would not be forced out of the Basque region by ETA, which has killed more than 800 people in its 30-year fight for an independent state.

National outrage

Police also blamed the separatist movement for a letter bomb that injured two women at the home of a soldier in the city of Vitoria on Saturday. The women suffered minor injuries from flying glass.

The army corporal who was the apparent target was unhurt. He had formerly served as a general's bodyguard and is reported to have received threats from ETA.

The Basque regional police and central government have been criticised for failing to protect Popular Party politicians, who have become ETA's primary targets.

ETA has murdered three other Basque town councillors in the past two years. The kidnapping and killing last July of Miguel Angel Blanco sparked national outrage, bringing an estimated six million Spaniards onto the streets.

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