Spain expects to "maintain a cooperation" with Venezuela "in the fight against terrorism," at a time when the Spanish justice requested the extradition of the Spanish-Venezuelan citizen Arturo Cubillas, who has been accused of training members of the Basque armed group ETA in Venezuela.

"We, as Spanish authorities, expect to keep cooperation in the fight against terrorism with Venezuelan authorities," Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez said in a news conference held in La Paz, Bolivia. Jiménez is in an official visit to the Bolivian capital, AFP reported.

Arturo Cubillas was deported to Caracas in 1989 along with 10 other ETA members, under an agreement entered into by and between Venezuela and Spain. Cubillas is currently a Venezuelan citizen and a public servant at the Venezuelan Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.

"What we have been doing is counting on the Venezuelan government and with the governments of many other countries to achieve their cooperation in the fight against terrorism," she said.

Jiménez was cautious in her reaction after an exchange of strong statements between Spain and Venezuela over the Cubillas issue.

Meanwhile, Marcelino Iglesias, the "number 3" of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), said that this political party "does not share" the "more optimistic" view about the complete cessation of violence by ETA expressed by Jesús Eguiguren, the president of the Basque socialist group.