Madrid  - Spain are keen to show the world that their triumph at Euro 2008 was no flash in the pan.

That's why they are desperate to do well in next June's Confederations Cup, the draw for which will be held on 22 November in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This will be Spain's first participation in the elite tournament, now in its eighth edition.

Spain will go to the tournament as one of the favourites, as European champions and as number one in the FIFA world rankings.

"La Seleccion", as it is known, has never before flown so high - or so elegantly. And it has never before been so highly regarded across Planet Football.

Madrid  - Bernd Schuster is to continue as coach of troubled football club Real Madrid - for the time being.

Pedja Mijatovic, the club's sporting director, announced on Monday evening that Schuster still enjoys his confidence, despite recent results.

"My confidence in the coach has not changed since the beginning of the season," Mijatovic told the packed press conference at the Estadio Bernabeu.

London  - A leading convicted member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, who is wanted by Spain, will fight his extradition from Britain, a court in Northern Ireland was told Monday.

Ignacio de Juana Chaos, 53, was granted bail by a judge at the Recorder's Court in Belfast Monday, where he will have to appear again on November 28. He had earlier surrendered for "arrest by agreement."

Judge Tom Burgess said the Spaniard was granted bail under a series of strict conditions, including a night-time curfew and daily reporting to the police.

London  - A leading convicted member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, who is wanted by Spain, will fight his extradition from Britain, a court in Northern Ireland was told Monday.

Ignacio de Juana Chaos, 53, appeared at the Recorder's Court in Belfast Monday after surrendering for "arrest by agreement" ahead of the proceedings.

Defence barrister Sean Devine told the court that his client did not consent to extradition request and would fight it. The arrest warrant provided by the Spanish authorities was "fundamentally flawed," said Devine.

Madrid - When Txeroki, the suspected military leader of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, was captured in France on Monday, Spanish politicians hailed the arrest as yet another step towards the unavoidable defeat of separatist violence.

Yet while ETA has been seriously weakened by constant police crackdowns, it has always found new leaders and rebuilt its infrastructure, analysts pointed out.

Madrid, Paris - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Monday hailed the arrest of the suspected military leader of the militant Basque separatist group ETA as a "determining" blow to the group, "which is weaker today."

Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by his alias Txeroki, was "directly responsible for some of the latest killings" by ETA, Zapatero said.

Txeroki was arrested at 3:30 am with a woman near the Cauterets ski resort 30 kilometres from Lourdes in the Pyrenees in a coordinated operation between French and Spanish security forces.

The suspects were asleep when police broke into their flat, Spanish media reported. Both were armed.