LEGUTIANO, Spain - A powerful car bomb blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA has killed one Spanish policeman and wounded four others.

The blast occurred outside a barracks in the Basque village of Legutiano that houses both policemen and their families. The pre-dawn explosion shattered glass and blew off parts of the building's roof, raining debris over a wide area and trapping people inside.

A government official described the attack as an attempted massacre.

ETA often phones in warnings before attacks, but Spanish officials say it didn't do so this time.

They also say the assailants used a large amount of explosives in attacking a building, which housed 29 people, including five children.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba visited the barracks, which is just outside the regional capital, Vitoria.

The ETA "has failed in its attack because it had planned to cause a massacre, although it did not fail completely because it killed an innocent person who was just doing his job," he said later.

At least two people were trapped in the rubble, including the dead Civil Guard officer. Another officer was pulled out with injuries.

The ETA declared what it described as a permanent ceasefire in March 2006, but reverted to violence in a matter of months when peace talks with the Spanish government stalled.

In recent weeks, it has staged several bombings in the Basque region and neighbouring Navarra, but they paled in comparison with Wednesday's blast.

"I'm fed up with witnessing mornings like these in the Basque region," regional government President Juan Jose Ibarretxe said. "We don't deserve these sad mornings, but we must not give up."

At a military ceremony at the Royal Palace in Madrid, King Juan Carlos and his guests observed a moment of silence. Legislators carried out a similar tribute at parliament.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will travel to Vitoria later Wednesday, before a trip to South America. Town halls across Spain planned to observe five minutes of silence at noon Thursday.

The dead officer was identified as Juan Manuel Pinuel Villalon, 41, who was married with one child. He had been posted at the barracks for only two months.

Before Wednesday's car bombing, the last fatal attack by ETA was the shooting of a former town councillor in the Basque town of Mondragon on March 7, two days before Spain's general election.

The Basque group, which hopes to carve out a homeland between Spain and France, has staged more than 20 attacks since ending a ceasefire in December 2006, after peace talks with the government failed to yield concessions for the separatist group.

The death toll since then stands at six, including Wednesday's fatality. ETA has killed more than 820 people since launching its campaign of bombings and shootings in the late 1960s.

Zapatero's government negotiated with ETA after the group declared the ceasefire.

But ETA grew frustrated with a lack of concessions toward its goal of an independent Basque homeland, and in December 2006 it set off a huge car bomb at a Madrid airport parking garage, killing two people.

The government, which was caught off guard by the 2006 blast, launched an intense crackdown on ETA members, arresting dozens and suspending two pro-ETA nationalist parties.

In recent days, Zapatero has angered Basque nationalists even more by dismissing a plan by Ibarretxe to hold a referendum in the region on whether the Basque people prefer the status quo or believe they have the right to break away from Spain.

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