The Spanish parliament this evening backed a government proposal to outlaw the Basque nationalist party, Batasuna, the political wing of armed separatist group ETA.
The vote came just hours after the country's top anti-terrorist judge Baltasar Garzon slapped a three-year ban on Batasuna's political activities, ordered its offices closed and its assets seized.
The parliamentary vote is based on a tough anti-terrorism law passed in June, which allows the Supreme Court to pronounce a permanent ban on organisations suspected of participating in or supporting terrorism.
The proposal, put forward by the ruling Popular Party of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar and the Socialist opposition, was backed by 295 deputies, with 10 votes against and 29 abstentions.
ETA has waged a violent campaign since 1968 for an independent Basque homeland comprising parts of northern Spain and southern France that has cost the lives of more than 800 people.
Batasuna, which regularly gains between 10 and 20 per cent of the vote in Basque regional elections, has been heavily criticised for failing to condemn ETA attacks outright, particularly a car bomb explosion on August 4th in the Mediterranean resort of Santa Pola that killed two people, including a six-year-old girl.
Batasuna leaders say the campaign against them is politically motivated and is part of a wider plan to undermine the separatist left wing in the Basque regional parliament, where Batasuna has seven seats.
Right-wing Prime Minister Aznar, who survived an ETA attack in the mid-1990s, has vowed to tighten the noose around the Basque separatists following a string of bomb attacks in Madrid and holiday resorts in a country whose economy relies heavily on tourism.