UNITED NATIONS, March 17: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan chided UN Security Council members on Tuesday for naming the Basque separatist group ETA in a resolution adopted shortly after the deadly train bombings in Madrid.

Despite misgivings, the 15-member council last Thursday gave in to pressure from the Spanish government and agreed to a resolution that identified ETA as the perpetrator of the bombings.

"I think there is a lesson here for everybody, including the council members," Mr Annan told reporters. "I think the council members themselves have felt uneasy about that."

On Monday, Spain issued what amounted to a diplomatic apology, telling the Security Council it had acted in good faith when it pointed the finger at ETA. But the letter said that since Thursday new evidence had been uncovered "pointing to the involvement of citizens of other countries."

Spanish investigators have reported growing evidence that Muslim groups, possibly Al Qaeda, were involved in the attacks. The centre-right Spanish government's early condemnation of ETA may have cost it the election on Sunday to opposition Socialists.

Mr Annan, whose own statement last Thursday did not mention ETA, said the events in Spain needed to be viewed critically, including "the question of who did it and whether the public felt they got a full, clear picture from the government of what was going on."

"But I think what is important, and what this underscores, is that we need international cooperation, working across borders, to defeat and contain terrorism," Mr Annan said.

The Security Council resolution was an unusual one as previous measures condemning terror attacks - in Bali, Moscow as well as the United States a day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - did not pin blame on a specific group.

But Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio lobbied furiously for the council to mention ETA. US Ambassador John Negroponte said after the vote he supported the resolution because "we have no evidence to the contrary."-Reuters