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Spain’s Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, on Tuesday reiterated the Government''s stance in response to Batasuna''s claim for legalisation.

The outlawed leftwing nationalist group had called on the Spanish Government to relegitimize their status as a political party following ETA''s recent announcement of a ceasefire, but Rubalcaba replied that this would only happen once Batasuna had "definitively" broken ties with the armed group.

"The nationalist leftwing are negotiating with the wrong people; they should be speaking to ETA, not the Government. They must tell ETA to lay down their arms or else permanently break ties with them. That is the only way they will become legal. There are no alternatives," said Rubalcaba on Tuesday.

Speaking with EITB''s Radio Euskadi on Wednesday morning, Rubalcaba declared his certainty that Batasuna''s former spokeman, Arnaldo Otegi, "has played an important role" in the ceasefire announced by ETA on Sunday.

The Interior Minister restated that the imprisonment of Otegi was carried out because court judges had established that his party "forms part of ETA".

In response to Batasuna''s request for legalisation, Rubalcaba said they should forget about appealing to the Government until they solve the problem of ETA.

"Either they say to ETA: Guys, abandon (the armed struggle) in which case the reason for their illegality disappears; or they break directly with ETA and, in that moment, become legal once again."