MADRID: Security forces in France and Spain have arrested the military chief of the armed Basque separatist organisation ETA and eight other suspected members, the Spanish government said Sunday.

Jurdan Martitegi was arrested Saturday in the village of Montauriol in southwestern France along with two other suspected ETA members -- Alexander Uriarte Cuadrado and another person who has not been fully identified, the interior ministry said in a statement.

As part of the same operation, a further six suspected ETA members were held during the night in the cities of Bilbao and Vitoria and the town of Renteria in Spain's northern Basque Country.

In Montaural, the police seized three pistols, two cars, including one with a false number plate, and "a container of a type usually used by ETA for making explosives devices", the statement said.

"The operation, which has led to the detention of the top leader of the ETA commandos, began in Spain," with investigations by national police and those in the Basque Country.