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A senior police officer has been killed in a car bomb attack in the Spanish city of Bilbao, in the Basque region.

Eduardo Puelles Garcia, an inspector, died inside the vehicle in a car park in the city's Della Pina district.

The Basque regional government has blamed the bombing on the militant separatist group Eta, which formally ended a ceasefire two years ago.

Eta's violent four-decade campaign for a sovereign Basque state has cost more than 800 lives.

"There was an attack, a big explosion, that burnt up the individual inside the car and damaged other vehicles nearby," Basque regional government's Interior Minister Rodolfo Ares was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

If confirmed, it would be the group's first fatal attack in six months; and the first since the Spanish Socialist Party took control of the Basque regional government, following elections in March, says the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid.

ETA declared that election undemocratic.

The police investigation is being followed closely by Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, who is attending the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels.

The Spanish government had already declared the peace process "finished" after a bomb blast by Eta killed two Ecuadorean men at a Madrid airport car park in December 2006.

source BBC