8:48am UK, Thursday February 25, 2010

Huw Borland, Sky News Online

Argentina has urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon to step into a row over a British firm drilling for oil in waters off the disputed Falkland Islands.

Desire Petroleum’s contracted rig off the Falkland Islands

“We have asked the secretary general … to stress to Britain the need to abstain from further unilateral acts,” Argentinian foreign minister Jorge Taiana said.

Sabre-rattling has surged in recent days over the UK-ruled Falklands, a South Atlantic archipelago that Buenos Aires calls the Islas Malvinas.

Argentina insists it owns the islands despite losing a 1982 war with Britain, which has held them since 1833.

The dispute has heated up in recent days following the start of oil drilling off the archipelago.

British firm Desire Petroleum’s drilling operation got under way eight years after the islands’ government auctioned off oil exploration licences.

The British Geological Society believes there are deep oil reserves, but analysts say its prediction of 60 billion barrels is almost certainly inflated.

Mr Taiana called on Mr Ban to impress on London the need “to sit down at the negotiating table with Argentina over the sovereignty dispute over the islands”.

A UN statement said Mr Ban took note of “Argentina’s concerns regarding the Falkland Islands” and reiterated that “his good offices are available when requested by all parties in a dispute”.

Meanwhile, the UK has reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Falklands archipelago.

Britain’s ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant said it was “underpinned by the principle of self-determination as set out in the UN Charter”.

“We are also clear that the Falkland Islands government is entitled to develop a hydrocarbons industry within its waters, and we support this legitimate business in Falklands’ territory,” he added.

Argentinian troops staged a surprise landing on the archipelago to assert their claim to the territory on April 2, 1982.

It prompted a bloody 74-day war with Britain in which 649 Argentine troops and 255 British soldiers died.