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 The announcement comes only days after the work of an
international commission which is monitoring the disarmament and
ceasefire was thrown into doubt after it acknowledged ETA had kept
some weapons and explosives that were said to have been sealed and
put beyond operational use.
ETA announced a unilateral ceasefire in 2011, suspending four
decades of attacks in which more than 800 people died.
The group wants talks on moving hundreds of prisoners who are in
jail across Spain to the Basque region in return for dismantling its
military structure and turning in its weapons, but the government
has rejected the offer.
"The process of sealing the arsenals has started and the commitment
of ETA is to carry it out until it is complete, until the last
arsenal," the group said in a statement dated February 24 and
published on Saturday by Basque newspaper Naiz.
ETA said it had also agreed on a new method for disarmament which
includes handing over to the monitors the arms and explosives that
are being put beyond use.
It however warned that it was a difficult process that not only
depended on the group's and the monitors' goodwill but also on the
Spanish authorities.
"The attacks and obstacles can seriously affect the viability of the
disarmament process," it said in the statement.
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Senior members of the government and the ruling People's Party last
week said that the monitors were serving ETA's interests and their
work was "a lie".
The centre-right government of Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly demanded
ETA, which has been significantly weakened in recent years by
hundreds of arrests and flagging support in the region, dissolve
without pre-conditions.
(Reporting by Arantza Goyoaga, writing by Julien Toyer, editing by
David Evans)
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