BAYONNE, France, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - French police have arrested 12 people with links to Basque separatist groups including two figures from the Batasuna political party, a Basque prisoner support group said Wednesday.

Police were Wednesday searching the headquarters in the town of Bayonne of Batasuna, which is part of the movement seeking a Basque homeland straddling northern Spain and southwestern France, locals in the town said.

Police did not confirm any of the arrests, but members of the Askatasuna prisoner support group gave the names of the two arrested members of Batasuna as Xabi Larralde and Jean-Claude Aguerre.

Askatasuna said the latest arrests took place Tuesday and early Wednesday in several towns in France's Basque region.

Batasuna is legal in France but banned in Spain because it is the political wing of the armed group ETA, which is blamed for the deaths of 824 people over the last four decades in its campaign for independence for the Basque region.

The latest attacks blamed on the group left a Spanish soldier dead and 11 people wounded last weekend in a trio of car bombings in Spain.

France has pledged to help Spain in its clampdown against ETA after the group called off a a 15-month-old ceasefire in June 2007 and shattered hopes of a peace settlement.

Police in eastern France on Tuesday arrested two armed Spaniards, a man and a woman, suspected of belonging to ETA.