Spain to intensify investigation about ETA in Venezuela

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero says Spain''s top police officer will travel to Venezuela to work with the government there in an investigation of members of the Basque separatist group ETA.

Zapatero says Francisco Javier Velazquez, director general of the Spanish police, will collaborate with the government of Hugo Chavez.

Zapatero said Sunday that his government has pursued and captured members of the armed band in Spain and abroad through police and judicial investigations which included Venezuela.

Tension arose between the two countries after Spanish judge Eloy Velasco claimed in a court writ released Monday that the Venezuelan government could have collaborated with ETA.

On Saturday Venezuela issued a joint statement with Spain in which it rejected ETA unreservedly.