Catalans defy Spanish court in independence duel

Catalan leaders yesterday forged ahead for a vote on independence, defying a court challenge by the national government in their bid to redraw the map of Spain.

"We have agreed to maintain the election decree so that citizens can exercise their right to vote on November 9," the Catalan regional government spokesman Francesc Homs told reporters in Barcelona.

Fired up by last month's independence referendum in Scotland -- although voters there rejected independence -- hundreds of thousands of Catalans have protested in the streets over recent weeks demanding their own vote.

In another move of defiance, Catalonia's moderate conservative government formally decreed the creation of a commission to supervise the ballot, triggering a strong response from the central government.

Catalonia's president Artur Mas is walking a legal and political tightrope, under pressure from hardline separatists to push on with a potentially illegal vote, fiercely opposed by Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Spain's opposition Socialist party also opposes independence for Catalonia but has called for a federal constitutional reform to answer Catalan demands.

Proud of their distinct language and culture, many of Catalonia's 7.5 million inhabitants have long complained they get a raw deal from the government in Madrid, which decides how their taxes are spent.

Catalonia formally adopted the status of a "nation" in a 2006 charter that increased its autonomy, but the Constitutional Court overruled that nationhood claim, fuelling pro-independence feeling.