Argentina in call for talks over Falkland Islands

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner pays homage in London yesterday to those who died in the Falklands war. Photograph: Reuters/Andrew Winning

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez repeated her country's demand for sovereignty talks with Britain over the Falkland Islands in a speech broadcast from London yesterday.

"I want to reaffirm once again our sovereign right over the Malvinas Islands," Fernandez said, calling the islands by their Spanish name.

The speech at the Argentine Embassy in London, where she was attending the G20 summit, was televised live in Argentina.

Argentine leaders typically make such a speech on April 2, or Malvinas Day, the anniversary of the country's 1982 occupation of the islands, which led to a brief war won by Britain, in which more than 900 combatants died.

Argentine newspapers reported this week that British diplomats were eager to prevent the issue of the islands from disrupting the summit on the global economic crisis.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown met Fernandez on Saturday on the sidelines of a pre-G20 meeting in Chile and the two briefly discussed the islands.

Brown dismissed her demand for sovereignty talks but said the two countries could discuss commercial flights between the islands and mainland Argentina, which have been blocked for years.

Close to 3,000 people live on the rugged islands, a British territory that Argentina has claimed since the 19th century.

Fernandez said Britain must heed a long-standing United Nations resolution that the two sides negotiate the sovereignty issue.

Reuters