Spain's ETA declares a permanent ceasefire

MADRID, March 22 (UPI) -- The Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent ceasefire Wednesday, ending decades of fighting that claimed more than 800 lives.

The ceasefire is officially set to start on Friday, El Mundo newspaper reported in its online edition.

ETA issued a statement saying the truce would "promote a democratic process in the Basque country" and called on the Spanish and French governments to end their repression of the separatist movement.

Since the 1960s, ETA has been fighting for a separate homeland straddling the Spanish-French border. In recent years, the group has carried out a number of bombings, though no one has been killed in an ETA attack for several years.