CATALONIA has won the right to call itself a “nation” for the first time in a deal intended to keep Spain together.

Amid bitter wrangling, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, reached a deal to satisfy the region’s politicians and placate the fears of those who oppose its bid for more autonomy.

A parliamentary congressional committee voted 22-17 in support of the statute. The Spanish Constitution will now recognise “Catalonia’s national reality as a nationality” at the start of a document which will also grant the region more tax-raising powers. The lower house of the Spanish parliament is expected to rubber-stamp the vote next week.

The row threatened to split Spain, with Catalans demanding more power and others claiming that it would lead to regions such as the Basque Country and Galicia demanding similar deals.

Señor Zapatero came to power in 2004 promising to devolve more power to Catalonia in return for the support of Catalan parties for his minority Government. But when Catalan politicians presented their own statute demanding more power last year, it sparked a bitter row. Catalan products such as cava, its sparkling wine, were boycotted.

In January, Lieutenant-General José Mena Aguado, the then head of the Spanish army was sacked for threatening military intervention over the Catalan autonomy bid. The conservative opposition Popular Party and the left-wing Catalan nationalist Esquerra Republicana Catalana (ERC) party oppose the deal, reached by Señor Zapatero and another right-of-centre Catalan party, Convergencia I Union (CiU).

This deal has watered down some initial demands of Catalan politicians. Aside from granting nationhood, the region will be able to levy 50 per cent of income tax and VAT. It collects 33 per cent and 35 per cent respectively now.

Catalonia is to receive state investments equal to its contribution to the country’s GNP. At present it contributes 18.5 per cent of the GNP and receives 11 per cent in return. But control of ports and airports has not been ceded to Barcelona, the regional capital.

Pasquall Maragall, Socialist leader of the Catalan Government, said: “It is established for the first time in the history of Spain that Catalonia is a nation.” Josep Carod Rovira, the ERC leader, said, however, that the deal was paltry and did not go far enough.