Annan to attend Basque peace talks

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan is joining a handful of international political figures at a conference on Spain’s Basque conflict aimed at encouraging an end to the violence of the armed group ETA.

The Spanish government and leading opposition conservative Popular Party are not attending the one-day meeting Monday in the northern city of San Sebastian. They insist ETA must abandon arms.

Former Norwegian and Irish leaders, Gro Harlem Bruntland and Bertie Ahern, and Sinn Féin party leader Gerry Adams are attending.

ETA has killed 829 people in bombings and shootings since the late 1960s. It is classified as a terrorist organisation by Spain, the European Union and the United States. It declared a permanent cease-fire in January.