MADRID, July 11 (UPI) -- Spain's Basque separatist group ETA expelled six members after they proposed holding peace talks with the Madrid government.
The group's hardline faction is believed to be adamantly against peace talks and behind the expulsions, El Mundo newspaper reported in its online edition Monday.
The Basque group is blamed for more than 800 deaths in a more than 30-year campaign to establish an independent country in northern Spain and parts of southwestern France.
In June, ETA announced a partial truce saying it would no longer target politicians.
In response Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called on the group to renounce its armed struggle altogether.
Earlier this spring the Spanish parliament gave the green light for Zapatero's government to negotiate with ETA.
