A senior Spanish official told reporters on Wednesday that an ETA request to bring France into the peace talks was "unrealistic."

The armed Basque separatist group ETA must first "repudiate any form of violence irreversibly and definitively," said Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Spain's deputy prime minister.

ETA has struggled for an independent Basque homeland in northeastern Spain and southwestern France, a region the Basques call Euskal Herria.

ETA called on France to participate in the dialogue earlier on Wednesday, saying "if France does not recognize Euskal Herria, the fight for our rights and the conflict will continue."

The Wednesday statement appeared to contradict ETA's March declared ceasefire which it said would be "permanent," although the organization has not laid down its weapons.

The deputy prime minister said "I have already said that ending all types of violence is the prerequisite for peace."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told Spanish radio on the same day that direct contacts with ETA might take place as early as this summer, adding that he had a date in mind.

"This is a great opportunity for Spanish democracy" to end the violence, he said.

Zapatero plans to ask his Socialist-led parliament to endorse the beginning of direct talks with the group, which Spanish authorities say has been responsible for more than 800 deaths, during its four-decade campaign for independence.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2006)