ETA chief 'arrested in France'

The leader of the armed Basque group ETA was arrested in France today, officials said, in another setback for the separatists, who have seen five of their commanders taken into custody in the last two years.

ETA chief Ibon Gogeascoechea and two other suspected separatists were arrested in a joint French-Spanish police operation in the village of Cahan, France, following a long surveillance operation on a cottage that had been rented using false identity papers, said Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.