Argentina Says Plans Lawsuits Against UK Oil Firms Near Falklands

Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: "A lawsuit will be presented today against companies carrying out petroleum exploration activities on the Argentine continental shelf."

The discovery of oil has further raised tensions over control of the Atlantic archipelago more than 30 years after Argentine forces seized the islands and Britain sent a task force to retake them in a brief war which saw more than 600 Argentine and 255 British servicemen killed.

Britain said on Thursday it had summoned the Argentine ambassador to explain the threat to prosecute British energy firms.

"The UK has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and surrounding maritime areas, nor about the Falkland Islanders' right to decide their own future," a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

"We object strongly to recent statements by the Argentine President and the Argentine ambassador to London and so summoned the ambassador to account for these."

Britain said last month it would reinforce its military presence on the Falklands to counter the "very live threat" posed by Argentina.

However, Fernandez, in a speech honouring soldiers who died in the failed 1982 invasion of islands, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, dismissed the idea of Argentina being a threat.

(Reporting by Michael Holden in London and Richard Lough in Buenos Aires; editing by Stephen Addison)


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