A dispute over alleged CIA use of Spain as a base for transporting Islamic terror suspects spread today to the Canary Islands, where the regional government said it had asked Madrid to explain reports that airports there were also used for covert missions.

MORE than 300 Africans tore through a razor-wire fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla yesterday, clashing with police in the latest wave of undocumented immigrants seeking a foothold in Europe.

Spain’s interior minister today dismissed as speculation a newspaper report that the armed Basque separatist group Eta will declare a truce in the next three months.

Spanish politicians tonight greeted the IRA’s announcement that it was laying down arms and expressed hope that the move would encourage the armed Basque group Eta to do likewise.

Spain, hit by deadly al Qaida-linked bombings last year, put its security forces on maximum alert today following the London attacks, posting army and police units to watch over airports, train stations and shopping centres.

Spain, hit by deadly al Qaida-linked blasts last year on the Madrid commuter rail network, condemned today’s blasts in London and offered to help track down the perpetrators.

Suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA detonated a powerful car bomb today in Madrid, injuring 52 people in the sixth attack since Spain’s prime minister offered the group negotiations if it renounces violence.

A CAR bomb exploded near Madrid’s main convention centre yesterday, injuring 43 people, hours before Spanish and Mexican leaders were due there and after a warning from the Basque separatist group ETA.

A powerful car bomb exploded outside a Madrid convention centre where the Spanish king and queen were due to attend an arts fair today.

French and Spanish interior ministers today shot down a German proposal to set up transit camps in North Africa that would process asylum seekers before they reach Europe.

Seeking stronger European co-ordination in the fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, interior ministers from Italy, France, Germany, Britain and Spain were wrapping up informal talks today at a Florentine villa.

Spain vowed today to crush the Basque separatist group Eta following the arrest of its alleged leader and seizure of a vast weapons arsenal in raids in France described as virtually decapitating the organisation.

Two of Spain’s most wanted alleged terrorists and at least 16 other suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group Eta were captured today in a vast French-Spanish police operation, authorities said.

FIFTEEN suspected Islamic extremists have been arrested in Belgium as part of an international investigation.

ITALIAN anti-terrorist police yesterday captured one of the masterminds of the March 11 Madrid bombings as part of an investigation involving police in at least two other European countries.