Two Basque separatists suspected of being behind a December bomb attack at a Spanish airport were delivered to Spain by French authorities on Friday.

The handover was the first conducted between the two countries under the European arrest warrant agreement.

The suspects of the separatist group ETA, Garikoitz Etxeberria and Asier Larrinaga, were arrested in January by French authorities in the Basque region, which straddles the two nations.

They are suspected of helping mastermind an explosion at a parking lot at Madrid's Barajas Airport on Dec. 23 last year.

With the attack, which killed two Ecuadorians, the armed group broke a nine-month ceasefire.

ETA, formed in 1959, has called for the establishment of an independent Basque state in the Basque region straddling the Spanish-French border. Around 850 people have been killed since 1968 in ETA-launched attacks.

Source: Xinhua