The United States has added the Basque nationalist group Batasuna to its list of "terrorist" groups that face sanctions.
The Basque party, the political arm of the banned ETA organisation, was put on a list of accused "terrorist" groups for which the United States tries to block financing.
The announcement was made as Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar arrived in Washington to meet President George W. Bush later today. Spain was a strong supporter of the US-led war against Iraq.
Batasuna, which demands independence for the Basque region of northern Spain and southwestern France, was outlawed by the Spanish supreme court in March.
A US State Department order, published in the Federal Register, listed the name Batasuna and two other aliases, Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarrok, which had been used in the past.
The order says Batasuna and the other aliases were a front for ETA, which has staged several attacks in Spain and France. ETA is already on the US blacklist.
"This is something we have been looking at for a long time with Spain," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "Spain is a strong ally of the US," he added.
In a speech to the United Nations yesterday, the Spanish prime minister called for the creation of a world list of terrorist organisations.
AFP