Official: Basque Militants' Truce "Insufficient"

Last Updated 12:31 p.m. ET

The Basque regional government said a cease-fire announcement by the separatist group ETA is "absolutely insufficient," because the group has not renounced violence or announced its dissolution.

Basque Interior Minister Rodolfo Ares' comments were the first official ones from the Basque region or Madrid to ETA's announcement earlier Sunday that it will no longer commit attacks, although the group did not specify if it would surrender its weapons or how long the truce might last.

On Sunday BBC News reported that it had been given a video in which the Basque separatist militant group declared a cease-fire. A clip shown by the British broadcaster shows three masked militants.

The BBC said the video declares that ETA has decided not to carry out armed operations, and "confirmed their commitment to finding a democratic solution to their struggle with the Spanish government."

The BBC said Sunday it is not clear whether the truce is permanent or whether peace talks will now be held.

ETA is seeking an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France. It is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the U.S. It has killed more than 825 people since the late 1960s.

It declared a cease-fire in 2006 but .

The group has been weakened by the arrests of several key leaders.

Ares said the ETA pledge "does not take into account what the vast majority of Basque society demands and requires from ETA, which is that it definitively abandon terrorist activity."