MADRID : The explosion of a booby-trapped van outside a civil guard barracks in Spain's restive Basque country on Wednesday killed a man and wounded four other people, police told AFP.

Spanish media attributed the blast to the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

The attack in the town of Legutiano happened around 3:00 am (0100 GMT) without a warning by a anyone claiming to speak on behalf of ETA, a spokesman for regional Basque police said.

Three of the wounded were rushed to a hospital while two other people -- one dead and one wounded -- were retrieved from rubble.

The van was parked a few metres (feet) from the barracks. National radio said the dead man was a civil guard.

ETA, whose initials stand for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Homeland and Freedom in the Basque language, is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.

The group is blamed for over 820 deaths during its four-decade-old fight for a Basque nation taking in parts of northwestern Spain and southwestern France.

It announced a "permanent ceasefire" in March 2006 but called it off in June 2007, saying it was frustrated with a lack of concessions by the socialist government during peace talks.

Since then, ETA has claimed responsibility for about 20 attacks while Spanish authorities have adopted a hard line, arresting dozens of suspected members of ETA and Batasuna, its banned political wing.

- AFP/vm