International negotiators including former Irish premier Bertie Ahern called Monday on armed Basque group ETA to declare a definitive end to violence.

"We call upon ETA to make a public declaration of the definitive cessation of all armed action," Ahern said after a one-day conference, which did not include the Spanish government or the outlawed ETA.

"If such a declaration is made we urge the governments of Spain and France to welcome it," Ahern said after the talks in the northern Basque city of San Sebastian.

Negotiators pressed Spain and France to greet such a move by starting talks to deal exclusively with the consequences of the conflict, which has lasted more than four decades and claimed 829 lives.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party president Gerry Adams, former Norwegian prime minister and WHO chief Gro Harlem Bruntland also took part in the talks.