MADRID, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- French and Spanish police on Monday arrested three suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, including the alleged second in command Harriet Aguirre, Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said.

    The National Anti-Terrorism Division (DNAT) of France and the General Information Commission of the Spanish Police arrested the three in a morning swoop in Arpajon-sur-Cere, a town in France's south-central region of Cantal.

    Police also found a "small arsenal" in the house where the arrested had been staying, Alonso told a news conference.

    Aguirre, suspected deputy to ETA's military leader Garikoitz Aspiazu, is accused of taking part in the killing of a deputy mayor, Froilan Elespe, in 2001. He fled to France in 2002.

    Alonso said one of the other two suspects arrested in the earlymorning operation was senior ETA member Idoia Mendizabal, born in 1977. The third suspect had not been identified.

    "This is a very important operation ... against the leadership of the military structure of the terrorist organisation, the most dangerous part of the terrorist group," Alonso said.

    The operation followed dozens of arrests of suspected ETA members, including some leaders, over the last year and months of speculation that the weakened group, which has repeatedly proposedtalks, could call a ceasefire.

    ETA, an acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom in the Basque language, has been listed as a terrorist organization by Spain, the United States and the European Union.

    The group has claimed responsibility for hundreds of deaths since 1968 when it started a campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France. Enditem