MADRID, Sept. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- A Finance Ministry building in the Spanish capital was briefly evacuated Thursday after a Basque newspaper received a bomb threat, which turned out later to be a false alarm.

    Police in the Basque region said local newspaper Gara had received a telephone call warning of a bomb attack in the capital, which triggered the evacuation operation.

    The call was made in the name of Basque separatist group ETA, which typically uses the newspaper as a mouthpiece for pre-attack warnings.

    Ministry staff returned to the building after a 90-minute search ended without discovering any explosives, said the police.

    ETA, founded in 1959 with the aim of establishing an independent state in Spain's Basque region and southwestern France, is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Enditem