MADRID, Spain —  With peace talks in tatters, Spain has begun a dramatic crackdown on Basque separatists in recent days, amid growing fears the group may be plotting a renewed bombing campaign before municipal elections next month, and possibly as early as the Easter weekend.

Eight men suspected of being the core of a revived cell of ETA, whose name stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, were seized near Pamplona last week. Two others were nabbed a day later in southern France, and two more were taken in and around San Sebastian on Sunday.

The raids have uncovered some troubling finds, including nearly 400 pounds of material for making explosives, detonators, a pistol and clamp mechanisms used for attaching bombs to the undersides of cars, a method regularly used by ETA in the past.

While there is no evidence that those arrested were plotting an imminent attack, the Basque government put police on maximum alert late last week.

"ETA is trying to rebuild its commandos and act," declared Basque Interior Minister Javier Balza. Spanish government officials have expressed concern that there could be violence as early as Easter weekend, which coincides with Basque National Day.

Just a year ago, ETA, which has killed more than 800 people since 1968 in its campaign for Basque independence, announced a "permanent" cease-fire and months later began talks with Prime Minister Jose Rodriguez Zapatero's government.

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Both sides reportedly met often, with talks focusing on ETA demands that Zapatero back referendums that would allow the Basque region and neighboring Navarra, home to many Basque nationalists and claimed by ETA, to merge. They are also said to have discussed moving some of the 500 ETA members in Spanish jails to prisons in the region itself so they can be closer to their families. They are currently spread out all over Spain.

Those demands were a far cry from ETA's historic goal of carving out an independent Basque homeland in the mountains between Spain and France.

But the talks stalled, and by August there were violent street demonstrations in the Basque city of San Sebastian and elsewhere. In October, suspected ETA commandos raided an arms depot in southern France, making off with 350 pistols _ an ominous sign for a group that had supposedly renounced violence forever.

In December, a key meeting between ETA and government negotiators broke up acrimoniously.

Not long after that an 1,100-pound bomb destroyed a parking lot at Madrid's gleaming new airport terminal on Dec. 30, killing two men and shattered what was left of the peace process.

ETA's banned political wing, Batasuna, has been clamoring to be allowed to run in the municipal elections on May 27, a move once seen as the logical next step in the peace process. The group is banned over its refusal to formally renounce violence.

But that was before the December bombing.

While the government is committed to finding a peaceful end to the Basque separatist question, insiders acknowledge it would be politically disastrous to allow Batasuna _ or its new look-alike party Abertzale Sozialisten Batasuna _ to run.

Spain's Interior Ministry has already begun moves to ban the new party, a step Batasuna leader Arnaldo Otegi has warned would be a "major attack against democratic liberties."

Some in the Basque country have denounced the recent raids as a show to justify the government's probable impending decision to ban the new Batasuna party and not let the old one field candidates either.

Analysts say Zapatero is unable to give in to ETA or Batasuna demands, but fearful that a hard-line will mean more violence _ and an end to his peace dreams.

"To conduct a peace process, it really does take two, and I think Zapatero has taken as many political risks as he can," said David Mathieson, an analyst at FRIDE, a Madrid think-tank.

But ETA is under pressure from hard-liners to take action if its political supporters are banned from the vote. Observers say more violence may be inevitable.

"ETA is keeping all of its options open. They have the weapons. They have the explosives," said Charles Powell, a political scientist at San Pablo-CEU University in Madrid. With both sides digging in, "there will have to be more violence before there is significant progress."

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