THE HAGUE, March 12: The European police organization, Europol, had warned last month of a large-scale attack by the ETA in Madrid, according to a recent confidential report seen here on Friday.

A censored copy of a Europol report said the "possible central scene of terrorist activity could be Madrid and the planned action could involve placing various explosive devices and vehicle bombs in different strategic points of the capital (subway, fast access roads, important streets, particular commercial centres etc.) and setting them to explode successively in the course of a few hours".

The Europol report, which was sent to the Council of Europe last month, added: "The recently observed emphasis on conducting large-scale operations which aim at creating considerable public shock and international coverage is equally of great importance."

Speaking in Rome on Thursday, Europol chief Juergen Storbeck Cast doubt on Spanish government claims that ETA carried out the deadly bomb attacks

The bombings "don't correspond to the modus operandi which ETA adopted up to now", he told reporters during a visit to the Italian capital.

"ETA has always committed attacks targeted at particular people and if there was a danger to the public at large, they gave a warning."

The fact that there was no warning in this case, said Storbeck, distinguished it from previous ETA bombings. That was why "it's still not clear who the authors are", he said.

Europol was created in 1994 to coordinate crime fighting in the European Union. -AFP