ETA prisoners join call for permanent Basque ceasefire

Prisoners belonging to ETA have joined a call for a permanent ceasefire by the Basque armed group, Gara and Berria -the newspapers traditionally used by the guerrillas- said on Friday, raising hopes that an end to four decades of violence was a step closer.

The official Basque prisoners' collective EPPK, which includes some 700 prisoners in Spain and France, had been debating for 10 months whether to adhere to the 2010 Gernika agreement which demands that ETA lay down its arms, the newspaper Gara said.

According to the communique, the ETA prisoners wanted to "show a firm decision to push to advance the democratic process with the Gernika agreement and following its contents."

"We are convinced that the process that has been started will allow us to achieve the objectives and we have the will to follow it to the end," the communique read..