Bomb explodes in Spain's Basque region

A small bomb damaged the office of Spain's governing party in a Basque town an hour after authorities received a warning call from the armed separatist group ETA, an official said Tuesday. No injuries were reported.

The Monday evening explosion coincided with the annual televised Christmas Eve speech by King Juan Carlos, who called for unity among political parties in the fight against terrorism.

Spain's Socialist party and the leading conservative opposition Popular Party are divided in recent years over measures to combat ETA, an organization which has killed more than 800 people since the late 1960s in its campaign for an independent Basque homeland in a region straddling northern Spain and southwest France.

The group broke a cease-fire with a large car bombing at a Madrid airport parking garage in December 2006, killing two people. It declared the cease-fire officially over in June and since then has carried out several nonfatal bombings and a shooting that killed two Spanish policemen in France.

Monday's device exploded at the back of a Socialist party office in the town of Balmaseda, near the port city of Bilbao, a police spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with institutional rules.

Police said they had evacuated residents from nearby houses after the Basque roadside assistance organization DYA received the call from a person speaking in the name of ETA.