Former Spanish councillor Isaias Carrasco was shot dead in the Basque town of Arrasate as he emerged from his home with his wife and daughter.

The lone gunman got away, and no-one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but it bore all the hallmarks of an ETA operation.

Spain is holding a general election on Sunday amid tight security over fears the ETA might stage an attack.

ETA has set off a series of small bombs in recent months in the Basque country.

The group also killed two Spanish policemen just across the border in France in December.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said last month he expected ETA to try to stage a deadly attack before the election.

ETA declared what it called a permanent cease-fire in March 2006 and said it wanted a negotiated settlement to a conflict in which it has killed more than 800 people but grew frustrated with a lack of concessions in ensuing peace talks with Spain's Socialist government.

ETA detonated a car bomb at Madrid airport in December 2006, killing two people. But the group insisted the deaths were unintended and that the cease-fire still held.

It formally called off the truce in June 2007, and since then has staged more than a dozen mostly minor bombing attacks.