With almost all ballots counted in a referendum allowing Catalonia, the prosperous northeastern region, more say in its own affairs, 73.9 per cent had voted “yes”.

Pasqual Maragall, the Catalan regional president, said: “The people of Catalonia have written a page in our history. We met the challenge we set out for ourselves.”

However, only about half of the five million Catalans eligible to vote did so, with 50.6 per cent abstaining, raising questions about the validity of the result.

The result came as a relief for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister, who had championed the plan. He said last night that the vote was valid: “Three of four Catalans who turned out have supported this project and have fully ratified the text. The statute gives the use of a new tool for self-rule as well as for diversity [of political interests].”

José Montilla, the Spanish Industry Minister and a senior Catalan official in the ruling Socialist Party, said: “The citizens have decided to open a new era with more strength, more acknowledgement of the Catalan national reality, more areas of jurisdiction, more resources and more capacity to intervene in Spanish and European policy.”

The conservative opposition Popular Party had opposed the plan, claiming that it would lead to other regions demanding the same deal and cause the eventual break-up of Spain.

But Señor Zapatero urged Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the Popular Party, and other parties that campaigned for a “no” vote to move on. Some Catalan nationalists intended to vote “no” because they felt that the plan did not grant the region enough independence from Madrid.

The Socialist Government, in an effort to keep the parliamentary support of regional Catalan parties, promoted the deal, claiming that it would lead to a more plural Spain.Polls last week had put support for a “yes” vote as high as 75 per cent, while the “no” vote was in single figures.

In an earlier autonomy deal, signed in 1979, Madrid gave Catalonia — like Spain’s 17 other regions — control over health, education and housing, along with equal status for the Catalan language with Spanish.

The new deal goes much further, granting Catalonia more tax-raising powers, control over immigration, employment legislation, a greater share of cash from Madrid and an independent judiciary. Most controversially, it allows the region, whose capital is Barcelona, to call itself a nation for the first time.

In exchange, people living in Catalonia will have a new duty to learn the Catalan language.

The “yes” vote may start a rush by other regions for similar levels of autonomy. Andalusia and the Balearic Islands have already sought similar deals.

It could give Basque nationalists extra leverage as Spain begins peace talks talks with the militant separatist group Eta this summer to end its 38-year-old terrorist campaign.

The Catalan deal has caused a huge backlash outside the region, with most Spaniards opposed to giving giving the region more powers. It provoked a boycott of cava, the sparkling wine made in Catalonia. The head of the Spanish Army was sacked after threatening a coup if Catalonia threatened the existing Spanish Constitution.

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