Catalonia's nationalist government says it will this week call a non-binding referendum on independence from Spain on November 9, setting the stage for a showdown with Spain's central government which categorically opposes the vote.
A day after Scottish voters rejected independence in a referendum authorised by Britain, Catalonia's regional parliament on Friday overwhelmingly approved a law which its leaders say will allow them to hold a non-binding "consultation" on independence.
Catalan president Artur Mas now must sign a decree formally calling the independence vote in the rich northeastern region which is planned for November 9.
"This will be done this week, in the coming days," Catalan government spokesman Francesc Homs told a news conference in Barcelona on Tuesday.
Spain's central government has branded the planned vote on independence illegal and has vowed to defend the unity of Spain.
It said it will block the ballot by appealing to the Constitutional Court as soon as Mas signs the decree.
Mas has suggested that if the central government blocks the independence vote he would call early regional elections in Catalonia which would act as a plebiscite on the issue.
But Homs rejected this scenario, saying there would be no early elections "on November 9 or after".
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona on September 11, Catalonia's national day, to demand a vote on independence.
With an economy roughly the size of Portugal's, Catalonia -- a region of 7.5 million or 16 per cent of the Spanish population -- has long been an economic powerhouse in a country where just under a quarter of people are unemployed.
But a growing number of Catalans resent the redistribution of their taxes by the central government in Madrid to other parts of Spain and believe the region would be better off on its own.
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