Former Prime Minister Mr Jose Maria Aznar has been summoned before a parliamentary commission investigating the Madrid train bombings to give his version of the most devastating attack in modern Spanish history.
"The commission has decided unanimously that Aznar should appear," Mr Uxue Barkos of the Nafarroa Bai party, a representative on the commission, said today.
Mr Aznar is the first former prime minister to be called before a parliamentary commission, El Mundonewspaper said on its Web site.
No date was set for Mr Aznar to testify. Ten bombs exploded aboard four commuter trains on March 11, killing 191 people three days before a general election.
Many Spaniards believe the election result was swayed by Mr Aznar initially putting the blame for the attacks on Basque separatist guerrillas ETA when evidence pointed to Islamic militants.
The commission, which decided last week to extend its inquiry, said it would call other witnesses, including European Union Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Mr Antonio Vitorino and Spain's former Security Secretary Mr Ignacio Astarloa.
News that Aznar would testify came as police in the northeastern city of Barcelona arrested 10 people, mostly Pakistanis, in early morning raids.
A High Court source said the arrests were part of an operation against "Islamic terrorism", but not related to the March 11 attacks.
However, officials in Barcelona played down any terrorism link.
"We are talking about an organised crime group that at some point may have had ties to some radical group from outside the country," a spokesman for the Catalan police force told Spanish state radio.
"We are not talking about an al-Qaeda cell in Barcelona," he addeed.
Documents were seized but no explosives or weapons were found, a spokeswoman for the Catalan Interior Department said.