Most Spaniards back talks with Basque rebels--poll .
MADRID 1996-08-24
Most Spaniards would support government talks with the illegal Basque separatist group ETA if the rebels renounced violence permanently , a survey published in daily El Mundo on Saturday said .
While 57 percent of the population supported negotiations with ETA ( Basque Homeland and Freedom ) , 30 percent opposed it , the survey by the state-controlled Centre for Sociological Studies ( CIS ) found .
But 80 percent said ETA had shown little interest in achieving peace in the Basque country when it offered a one-week truce in July while continuing to hold prison officer Jose Antonio Ortega Lara , kidnapped in January .
The problem of terrorism had neither worsened nor improved since the conservative Popular Party ( PP ) came to power in May , according to 56 percent of those questioned , while 22 percent said it had worsened .
The survey questioned 2,496 people between July 17 and 21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percent .