The Basque terrorist group ETA rejected Spanish government proposals for limited reforms of the constitution and said it was time to push for Basque self-determination.
Spanish Prime Minister Mr Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has proposed limited reform of the statutes governing Spain's autonomous regions.
Spain's regional governments have power over issues such as education and health care and the Basque country, with its own police force, enjoys the highest degree of autonomy.
Basque broadcaster
EiTBsaid on its Web site that its radio station
Euskadi Irratiahad received a statement from ETA saying the proposed reforms to the statutes governing regional autonomy
were not what the Basque country needed.
EiTBquoted the statement written in Basque as saying: "it is time to defend the right to self-determination which is protected by international law."
ETA, listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Union, has killed around 850 people since 1968 in its campaign for a homeland in northern Spain and southwest France.
The group also said in the statement they were willing to reach an agreement that respected the rights of the Basque country.
Last month local media reported rumours that ETA was planning to call a ceasefire, but so far none has been announced.
But over the last two years hundreds of ETA suspects have been arrested in France and Spain and the group has not been blamed for a fatal attack since the end of last May when two policemen were killed in a bomb attack.
Shortly after the Spanish elections, ETA called for dialogue with the new government in a communique but the Socialists flatly rejected the overture.