The Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said Friday that the "priority" in the lines of investigation of the attacks Thursday in the Spanish capital Madrid still point in the direction of the Bask Separatist Movement (ETA) though he assured they were also considering other hypothesis.

Acebes told a press conference that the last discovery connected to the terror attacks was a bag that had an explosive composed of Spanish-produced "Rubber 2", reinforced with shrapnel to multiply its effect and with a detonator and a mobile phone.

He said this type of explosive was similar to the one used by the terrorist group in other attempts.

Acebes said they had analyzed the "modus operandi," or mode of operation of the terrorists, focusing on the ETA, and the researchers had determined this terror group had tried to commit similar actions before.

The minister listed ETA's attempts during Christmas in 2002 in several malls, in 2003 Christmas eve in a train in a Madrid's station and what it did during last Christmas in Baqueira Beret station.

The characteristics of these failed attempts are similar to the ones that hit Thursday Madrid, where several bombs exploded in four trains killing 199 and wounding over 1,400, Acebes underlined.

The minister said that the investigations and the contacts the Spanish government held with different intelligence services "put doubts on the credibility" of the message allegedly sent Thursday to the Arab-language daily published in London by a faction of Al Qaida, which claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Shortly before Acebes' statement, ETA said in a phone call to the Basque daily Gara that they "had no responsibility" for Madrid's bombings.

The newspaper said it received the call at 06:00 p.m. local time (1700 GTM) from a person who claimed to be calling on behalf of ETA.

(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2004)