SPANISH politicians believe the Basque guerrillas who planted bombs in Spanish tourist resorts and wounded 35 people in an airport blast are trying to force the new conservative government into talks.
The six bombs planted by ETA separatists in north east Spain were not meant to cause casualties, according to the guerrilla organisation's political wing Herri Batasuna (HB), but to scare the government after it rejected a truce last month.
"These are the dramatic consequences of a policy that does not resolve the problems in the Basque country," an HB spokesman said. "It's unfortunate that there had to be victims."
The bombs were all preceded by warning calls from ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) and appeared to be linked to a similar series of small bombs at tourist sites in Andalusia earlier in the month, the Interior Ministry said in Madrid.
Those attacks came after a week long truce was offered by ETA, which has killed 800 people in its 28 year old bid for Basque independence. ETA had proposed the ceasefire to start peace talks with the Spanish government.
The guerrillas ended the truce - largely symbolic because their attacks were not frequent - after rejecting the government's conditions for talks.
The Popular Party (PP) government, in power since May, refuses to negotiate with ETA unless it rejects violence. Madrid says it will consider peace talks only if ETA lays down its arms and frees a kidnapped prison officer.
ETA used the Argentine Nobel peace prize winner, Mr Adolfo Perez Esquivel, as a go between when the Socialists were in government last year in an attempt to start talks that fizzled out as the general election approached.
The PP government reaffirmed its tough anti guerrilla policy on Sunday after the attacks, laying ETA would not be able to bulldoze it into a more conciliatory stance.
"ETA is not going to change even a single action of the (government)," the Interior Minister, Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, told a news conference.
"There is no magic to fight terrorism. Only constant and stubborn police action and the co operation of citizens will bring peace to our country."
HB says ETA struck Spain's lucrative tourist industry again, as it did last year, in a bid to throw the government off balance and force it to exchange a "confrontational attitude" for a "political solution".
There is some discrepancy over how much warning ETA gave police to clear Reus airport, which was packed with British tourists, and whether the separatists had intended that the bomb there should explode when anyone was near it.
Victims and witnesses of the explosion said the bomb went off about 20 minutes later than the government claims. A regional official told a radio interviewer that there had been an hour of warning.
"They had more than enough time to clear us out of the place. Why didn't they tell us we were at risk," said Ms Linda Baxter (44), of Southend, England. Her daughter Emma (14) suffered bad lacerations on her legs from flying shrapnel.
Police in Tarragona said on Sunday the operation to clear the airport had been organised but was not under way when the bomb exploded. But they reaffirmed the government statement that there was only a five minute warning.
Joelle Diderich and Leslie Dowd report:
Foreign holidaymakers are still flocking to Spain's beaches despite a series of bombs at coastal resorts, but officials fear tourism could suffer if Basque separatist rebels step up their attacks.
The beaches on the Costa Dorada in Catalonia were as packed as ever, while in other areas the only tangible sign of tension was an increase in the number of khaki uniformed paramilitary Civil Guards patrolling tourist sites.
Hoteliers say it is too early to evaluate the damage ETA's "summer campaign" may inflict.