Five ETA suspects held - reports

Police arrested five suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA in northern Spain today, news media reported.

The five were suspected of helping ETA members cross borders into and out of Spain, according to news reports carried by Europa Press, Cadena Ser radio and other outlets.

A spokesman at the Interior Ministry in Madrid declined to provide additional information.

ETA has claimed or has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since launching a campaign in the late 1960s for an independent Basque homeland straddling northern Spain and southwest France.

It is classified as a terrorist group by the European Union and the US.