An ETA suspect arrested this week in Spain was planning an attack on the America's Cup, several newspapers said on Friday quoting Spanish police.

Iker Aguirre Bernadal was arrested on Thursday during a routine check by police on a train that had crossed the border between the French town of Perpignan on its way to Barcelona on Spain's Mediterranean coast.

The Spanish interior ministry said he was wanted for committing "an act of terror and public order-related offences," the subject of a warrant issued in July 2004 by a Basque provincial court.

Spanish media said that 3 000 euros in cash, six false identification papers as well as manuals on making explosives were found on Bernadal when he was arrested.

"He was to obtain information on the America's Cup which starts in Valencia in April and will run for several months," said the centre-left newspaper El Pais quoting police.

ETA's military chief Garikoitz Aspiazu "Txeroki" had asked him "to set up the infrastructure in Valencia to carry out one or several attacks during the America's Cup," said the right-wing daily ABC quoting investigators.