MADRID, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - The main leaders of Batasuna, the banned political wing of ETA, will go on trial for their alleged links to the armed Basque separatist group, a Spanish court said Tuesday.

The National Audience -- Spain's top court for investigating and judging terrorism cases -- will try the 41 Batasuna members, including the leader of the party, Arnaldo Otegi, for 'membership in a terrorist group', it said.

Spanish investigative judge Baltasar Garzon has completed his inquiry into Batasuna's links with ETA and the group's alleged fundraising through a series of taverns, paving the way for a trial to start within the next 12 months.

Batasuna was outlawed in 2003 for refusing to condemn violence and cut its links to ETA, which has killed 822 people in Spain in bombings and shootings during almost four decades of fighting for independence for the Basque region.

Otegi has been in jail since June 2007 as part of a 15-month sentence for the crime of 'praising terrorism'.

Among the other key Batasuna members who will be tried is Joseba Permach, who was detained along with most of the remaining members of the party still at large in October 2007 at a secret meeing in the Basque region.

Permach had acted as Batasuna's main spokesmen since Otegi's arrest in June.

ETA announced a 'permanent ceasefire' in March 2006 and shortly after the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zaptero said it was launching tentative peace talks with the outfit.

ETA in December 2006 set off a bomb at a car park at Madrid's international airport, killing two men, and in June 2007 it formally called off its ceasefire citing a lack of concessions by the government in their peace talks.

Zapatero, re-elected in a March 9 general election, has since ruled out any further peace talks with ETA while Spanish authorities have adopted a harder line against the group, detaining dozens of suspected members of the outfit and its political wing Batasuna.

ETA is considered a terrorist organisation by both the European Union and the United States.