Five beaches near a popular Spanish resort south of Barcelona were evacuated by police today after authorities received a bomb warning, possibly from Basque separatists.

Two calls were received by the Basque newspaper Gara, which often serves as a mouthpiece for the Basque separatist group ETA, the Interior Ministry said.

A ministry official said 2,000 sunbathers, mainly foreigners, were evacuated from five beaches in Sant Carles de la Rapita in the Tarragona province.

Officials later declared the bombs a false alarm but will investigate who made the calls and whether there were links to ETA.

Beachgoers were allowed back after a two-hour search produced no evidence of explosives, the government said.

"It looks like a sick joke, a desire to bother people," said Montserrat Tura, the Interior Ministry chief for the regional government of Catalonia.

In one warning, the caller reportedly claimed that 150 kg (330 lb) of explosives loaded in a backpack would go off at 2:15pm, on the same area of beach mentioned in bomb threats on Sunday and yesterday.

"The beaches have been totally reopened," said Carlos Genovilla, a member of the city council in the resort town of Sant Carles de la Rapita in Tarragona province.

The alarm has raised fears of a summer of disruption in Spain, coming days after ETA carried out its first bombing since mid-2003, in the seaside tourist village of San Vicente de la Barquera on Spain's northern coast. No one was hurt.

The Spanish government has also warned ETA bombers may be aiming to strike at the tourism industry.

Today's bomb threat forced Britain's travel industry to warn the tens of thousands of British holidaymakers in Spain to be on guard.

"We urge everyone to be vigilant," said Keith Betton, corporate affairs head of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA).

"The travel industry has to take security threats seriously."

Sant Carles de la Rapita is popular mainly with Spaniards, although some Germans and Britons own holiday homes there.

ETA, which has killed 850 people since 1968 in a shooting and bombing campaign for an independent Basque state, regularly stages summer bombing campaigns in an attempt to undermine Spain's key tourism industry.

Spain's former conservative government initially blamed ETA for the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, before evidence emerged that Islamic militants were responsible.

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