Madrid - The Spanish government is moving jailed members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA to prisons closer to their homes in an attempt to persuade the group to give up armed struggle, press reports said Wednesday.

The government has moved several dozen terrorism convicts who have renounced ETA's ideology of violence.

Prisons in Spain and France hold more than 700 ETA convicts.

Such prisoners have usually been kept at a distance from the Basque region, but convicts who have become dissidents within ETA are now being moved closer to home to allow family members to visit them.

Those who have been transferred recently include Santiago Arrospide alias Santi Potros, ETA's former military leader, who was sentenced to nearly 3,000 years in prison on charges including planning a 1987 supermarket bombing that killed 21 people in Barcelona.

Arrospide and two other ETA convicts were moved to a prison near Zaragoza, which is located at about 300 kilometres from the main Basque cities.

Hardliner prisoners, on the other hand, have been transferred to prisons down south.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist government was trying to strengthen non-violent currents emerging within ETA and related political groups at a time when the Basque region appears set to get its first pro-Spanish government, reports said.

Basque socialist leader Patxi Lopez is expected to become regional prime minister after his party increased its support in the March 1 elections.

The region had been governed by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which seeks looser ties with Spain, since it was granted a wide autonomy in 1979.

ETA, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, has killed more than 820 people since 1968. (dpa)