The fate of a fragile ETA ceasefire hangs in the balance in Spain as a deadline set by separatist Basque guerrillas for progress in peace moves looms without any sign of a breakthrough.
Last month the guerrillas, who declared a ceasefire in March, said they would walk away from the peace process unless there was "visible progress this autumn" in talks between political parties over the future of the Basque Country.
With December 20 considered the last day of autumn, there has been no obvious progress and banned pro-ETA political party Batasuna said the attempt to end a four-decade conflict dating from the Franco dictatorship was doomed.
"There is an atmosphere of pessimism, that things aren't going well, you hear it from the government and from the pro- ETA Batasuna camp," said Carlos Barrera, who teaches modern history at the University of Navarre.
"ETA would be running a risk if it relaunched the armed struggle," he said. "But rationality isn't exactly their strong point."
In June, Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defied opposition criticism to launch a peace process with ETA , which killed more than 800 people trying to win independence for an area in northern Spain and southern France.
The talks with ETA , which officials have not confirmed have even started yet, were meant to focus on the group's disarmament and the fate of its members including hundreds held in jails.
At the same time, separate negotiations began between political parties in the Basque Country -- a region that is home to one of Europe's oldest peoples and languages -- to seek ways of resolving the conflict.