Madrid - Spanish judicial experts expect no major new investigations into alleged human rights abuses during the 1936-39 civil war and General Francisco Franco's ensuing 36-year dictatorship, the daily El Pais said Thursday.

High-profile judge Baltasar Garzon's decision to drop the first such inquiry on Tuesday was described as a big blow by representatives of Franco's victims.

Garzon transferred the responsibility for investigations to courts in regions where atrocities had taken place, but the courts would find it difficult to launch new probes, according to judges interviewed by the daily.

Garzon gave up his investigation on the grounds that those responsible for the repression were dead, after the public prosecutor's office had appealed against the probe, arguing that Franco's crimes had been covered by the amnesty granted to his collaborators after his 1975 death.

The same arguments would apply to regional courts, according to El Pais.

Regional courts also lacked guidelines on how to handle petitions to open mass graves, a situation which could lead to a judicial chaos, according to experts and victims' representatives.

Garzon blames Franco for the killings of more than 100,000 people in acts of repression during the civil war, which was sparked by the general's uprising against the republican government, and the dictatorship.

Citizens' associations have dug up the remains of thousands of republicans of mass graves.

About 100 international lawyers and intellectuals meanwhile signed two manifestos expressing support for Garzon's inquiry and urging Spain to provide justice for Franco's victims. The signatories included Portuguese Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago. (dpa)