MADRID, May 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Laying down arms and ending all terrorist acts is the prerequisite for the separatist Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA) group to hold talks with the Spanish government, said Spanish justcie minister on Thursday.

    Addressing the parliament, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar said theparliament's recent approval of the government to hold talks with ETA is not unconditional, nor is it an invitation.

    As a terrorist group, ETA's only future is to lay down arms and surrender to the government, he said, adding it must be thoroughly dissolved so as to ensure the safety of the Spanish people and protect their properties.

    According to media reports, ETA recently announced that it would never give up arms first in order to facilitate a negotiation. Instead, it suggested declaring an indefinite cease-fire during talks with the government.

    The Spanish parliament on Tuesday endorsed a government proposal on opening peace talks with ETA if the latter lays down arms, signaling a political potential for ending the 37-year-long turbulence in the Basque region.

    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero maintains that ETA has been weakened by government arrests and clampdowns, unable to stage a fatal attack over two years, so it is now the right time to initiate a peace process. His government is the first ever to get backing from the parliament to open peace talks with ETA.

    The opposition Popular Party, however, holds that it's still "too early" to open talks with ETA, since the group has neither announced a giving-up of violence, nor declared a cease-fire.

    The ETA, established in 1959 and listed as a terrorist group bythe United States and the European Union, has been blamed for hundreds of assassinations, kidnappings and bombings in its bid toestablish an independent state in the Basque areas of northern Spain and southwestern France. The Spanish government tried to hold cease-fire peace talks with the group in 1989 and 1999, but both endeavors failed. Enditem