Spain's right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) said on Tuesday that it had broken off relations with the ruling Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) over talks with a Basque separatist party.

Mariano Rajoy, leader of the PP, told the parliament that his party could not remain impassive after the ruling PSOE said it was seeking a meeting with Batasuna, the political wing of the armed group ETA, whose name in Basque stands for the Basque Homeland and Freedom.

He accused the PSOE-led government of abandoning the nation's long-valued principles against terrorism.

"The PP cannot remain indifferent to things of this nature, and now it breaks all relations with the government," said Rajoy, whose party had shunned Batasuna while in power.

The PP considered the PSOE's moves "a serious attack on judicial order, democratic legality, the rule of law and the security of Spain," he added.

Rajoy blasted Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for having agreed on a roadmap to peace with ETA, "the terrorists" as he termed them.

ETA declared a unilateral ceasefire on March 22, which came into effect two days later. Earlier this week, the Basque Socialist Party, the PSOE's Basque branch, said that it would meet with Batasuna.

Zapatero, who received special permission to speak in parliament in response to Rajoy, dismissed the charges as "a hypocritical game," saying that the PP had spoken with ETA as recently as in 1998.

He vowed to remain committed to bringing an end to the conflict with Spain's Basque minority, who live mainly in the northeast of the country.

Conservatives are also angry about a planned charter to also give another Spanish state, Catalonia, more independence. The charter will be put to vote on June 18 in the form of Catalan referendum. Conservatives warn that talks with ETA and the offer of greater regional autonomy may set the stage for the breakup of Spain.

According to official reports, ETA has killed 800 people since 1968, when it began its campaign for Basque independence.

Source: Xinhua