MADRID, Spain — A judge charged the suspected leader of the Basque separatist group ETA today with plotting an attack on the America's Cup sailing race last year in Valencia, Spain.

Judge Baltasar Garzon said Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu sent another suspected ETA member to Valencia to gather information on the city's port, ceremonies to be held in connection with the race and delegations that were to attend.

Aspiazu, 35, was arrested last week in France and remains in custody there.

Garzon said in a seven-page indictment that the emissary, Iker Agirre, was arrested in January 2007 as he entered Spain from France, en route to Valencia. The race was held in June and July.

The judge charged the two men with belonging to a terrorist organization and conspiracy to commit murder.

He charged five other suspected ETA members with terrorism for allegedly indoctrinating Agirre and training him to use explosives.

Aspiazu had also ordered Agirre to gather information for attacks last summer in Alicante, a coastal resort region just south of Valencia, the judge wrote.

The judge said investigators learned of the America's Cup attack planning through interrogation of Agirre and documents he was carrying upon his arrest, among other sources of information.

Aspiazu led ETA's commando units, which commit attacks, until the arrest in May of ETA's then-top leader and at that point he became its supreme chief, Spain's Interior Ministry says.

ETA usually has one leader for its armed units and another overall boss for deciding on strategy, recruiting and other issues.

The National Court indicted Aspiazu this week over his alleged role in an ETA car bombing in December 2006 that killed two people at Madrid's Barajas airport. That attack ended a ceasefire that ETA had called in March of that year and caused the government to end peace talks with ETA.

Aspiazu is implicated in more than 20 terror cases in Spain.

A French judge has filed preliminary anti-terrorism charges against Aspiazu in two cases, including the killing of two Spanish police officers in southwest France last year.

Spain says Aspiazu's arrest represents a decisive blow against ETA but acknowledges that other ETA leaders have been detained in the past, only to be replaced.