Spain raises terror alert

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Spain's has raised its anti-terror alert level to two to reflect the risk of possible attacks ahead of Madrid taking over the European Union Presidency on January 1.

The move comes a day after Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said armed Basque separatist group ETA could use Spain's six-month EU presidency to commit a violent attack or a high-profile kidnapping.

"There exists a probable risk of an attack due to the special significance of the Christmas holiday period, Spain's upcoming EU Presidency, and after an evaluation of the risks of a terrorist threat at home made by Spain's armed and security forces," the ministry said in a statement.

Rubalcaba said on Monday an ETA attack could include a kidnapping to get international publicity for its aim to create an independent Basque state made of parts of northern Spain and southern France.

The ministry also flagged the "persistent international terrorist threat", following the failed attempt by a Nigerian national last Friday to set off an explosive device on a US bound plane.

"These events make it advisable to increase security throughout the country," the ministry said, adding that there were four levels of security alert.

ETA, which has killed more than 850 people in the last four decades in bombings and shootings, used kidnapping as one of its main tactics to get attention in the 1980s and 1990s.

Its most well-known kidnapping was in 1997 when it seized and shot Miguel Angel Blanco, a local politician in the Basque region, after a 48-hour ultimatum to the government to transfer all ETA prisoners throughout Spain to prisons in the Basque country.

- Reuters