Spanish rally for shot policeman

Several thousand people attended the rally in Madrid

A rally has been held in Madrid to protest at the killing of a Spanish policeman in south-west France, blamed on the Basque separatist group Eta.

The dead man's colleague was shot in the head and has been in a coma since the attack on Saturday.

All mainstream parties urged Spaniards to attend the rally but the prime minister was conspicuously absent.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was booed at the policeman's funeral on Sunday by those who accuse him of appeasing Eta.

He entered into a dialogue with the group last year but an Eta bomb killed two people in a car park at Madrid airport last December and, in June, Eta formally ended its ceasefire.

Election looms

Raul Centeno, 24, was shot dead at point-blank range while on a surveillance operation in the French seaside resort of Capbreton on the Atlantic coast.

The shot police officer was given a state funeral on Sunday

His colleague, Fernando Trapero, was critically injured.

French police are still hunting three suspects.

Thousands of Spaniards paid their respects in Madrid under a banner which read "For freedom and the defeat of Eta".

The rally was intended to be a show of national unity, above party politics, the BBC's Steve Kingstone reports.

But the crowd was clearly split between those supporting Spain's Socialist government and others demanding the resignation of Mr Zapatero.

Controversially, Mr Zapatero did not attend the event.

Advisers said he was focusing on security policy and felt it was for inappropriate for a head of government to take part in a demonstration organized by civil society.

But Spain's conservative opposition believes the prime minister was scared of facing public criticism, our correspondent says.

The war of words over who is tougher on terror will continue until a general election here in three months' time, he adds.