Timeline: Basque rebels ETA say to halt armed attacks

(Reuters) - Here is a timeline of some major events since Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom) (ETA) was founded.

1959 - ETA is formed during dictatorship of General Francisco Franco to fight for Basque self-determination.

1968 - ETA carries out first killing: victim is Meliton Manzanas, police chief in the Basque city of San Sebastian.

1973 - Franco's Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco is killed when his car drives over explosives planted by ETA in Madrid.

1980 - In its bloodiest year, ETA kills nearly 100 people despite Spain's return to democracy.

September 1985 - First ETA car bomb explodes in Madrid. A U.S. tourist is killed and 16 Civil Guards wounded.

July 1986 - Twelve Civil Guards are killed in Madrid and 50 wounded. Juan Manuel Soares, a repentant Basque separatist, is sentenced to 1,401 years in jail in April 2000 for the killings.

June 1987 - Twenty-one shoppers are killed by a bomb at Barcelona supermarket. ETA apologises.

July 1997 - ETA accepts the "crude and painful" consequences of its killing of Popular Party member and Ermua town councilor Miguel Angel Blanco after they kidnapped him on July 10.

-- Blanco's killing is a turning point for public opinion as millions of Spaniards, incensed by the assassination, take to the streets to vent their anger.

September 1998 - ETA announces a truce which ends in December 1999.

November 21, 2000 - Socialist Former Health Minister Ernest Lluch shot dead in Barcelona.

October 10, 2004 - New Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero appeals to ETA to give up the fight after the arrest of a suspected leader, Mikel Albisu Iriarte, alias "Mikel Antza."

March 22, 2006 - ETA declares a permanent ceasefire, which comes into force two days later.

December 30 - Car bomb explodes at Madrid airport killing two Ecuadorians. Zapatero breaks off peace process.

April 8, 2007 - ETA says it is ready to make new commitments to the peace process if Spain stops "attacks" in the Basque region where police have been arresting ETA suspects.

-- December 1 - ETA suspects kill two Guardia Civil policemen working undercover in France.

January 14, 2008 - Zapatero rules out any chance of peace talks with ETA and says its only option is unilateral surrender.

-- March 7 - Isaias Carrasco, former councilor for the Socialist Party, is killed in Mondragon. ETA later claims responsibility.

-- October 30 - A car bomb explodes in a University of Navarre car park in northern Spain, wounding 17 people.

-- November 5 - ETA claims responsibility for 10 bombings and says it will press its campaign for Basque rights.

-- November 17 - ETA's suspected military leader, Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by his alias "Txeroki" or "Cherokee," is arrested in France's Pyrenean region, near the Spanish border.

-- December 3 - Ignacio Uria, an owner of the construction company Altuna y Uria, building a stretch of the high-speed train named by ETA as a target, is shot dead in Azpeitia. ETA later claim responsibility for the killing.

-- December 8 - French police announce the arrest of a man identified as Balak, presumed successor to Txeroki.

April 18, 2009 - Jurdan Martitegi, ETA's new military leader known as "the giant" is arrested in southern France.

-- June 19 -- Eduardo Puelles, a police inspector is killed in a booby-trapped car in the northern city of Bilbao.

-- July 29 - A car bomb explodes outside a Civil Guard barracks in the northern city of Burgos, injuring 46 people.

-- July 30 - Two police officers are killed in an explosion at a civil guard barracks on Palmanova, close to the Marivent palace where Spain's royal family was spending a summer holiday.

-- Aug 9 - ETA claims responsibility for bombs in the last two months which have killed three policemen and injured 46.

-- August 26 - French police arrest three ETA suspects in a ski resort and then uncover 13 caches of arms in regions across southern France, dealing a heavy blow to the group.

-- November 14 - Batasuna calls for talks between ETA and Spain based on principles used in Northern Ireland's peace process. Spain rejects the overtures the next day.

-- December 29 - The Interior Ministry says it has raised its anti-terror alert level to 2 reflecting the risk of attacks ahead of Madrid taking over the EU Presidency on January 1.

February, 27, 2010 - Faction of ETA's banned political wing Batasuna says it wants to pursue peaceful politics.

-- Feb 28 - Ibon Gogeascoechea, ETA's latest top leader and on the run since 1997, caught along with two other senior ETA rebels in a joint Spanish-French raid near the small town of Cahan in Normandy, the Interior Ministry says.

-- March 1 - Spain demands Venezuela explains itself after a judge accused it of helping ETA rebels and Colombian FARC guerillas plot possible attacks on Spanish soil.

-- March 17 - A French police officer shot and killed near Paris after his patrol fired on by suspected ETA rebels leaving a car robbery scene.

-- March 18 -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy vows to hunt down a group of suspected militants from ETA accused of murder of the police officer.

-- March 21 -- ETA say ready to take steps for political change in Basque Country, but stopped short of calling end to armed struggle, through statement released to Gara newspaper.

-- May 20 -- French police arrest suspected military leader of ETA in French town of Bayonne.

-- Sept 5 - ETA decides to stop carrying out armed attacks, according to a statement published by Basque-language newspaper Gara on its website.