President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner launched the claim at the Caribbean-Latin American summit with the European Union despite advice from Spain and other participants she could try and solve issues with Britain on a bilateral level.

Argentina and Britain went to war over the islands in 1982 after a junta-led Argentine invasion. Britain beat back the invasion, but the conflict cost 907 lives and left Argentina with the stigma of defeat.

The elected governments that succeeded military dictatorships in Argentina were muted in their iterations of territorial claims over Falklands -- till Fernandez revived the sovereignty issue in 2009.

Senior British officials rejected the claim outright, leaving open-ended the next stage in a war of bitter recrimination, begun on the back of renewed prospecting for oil and gas in North Falkland basin.

The undersea deposits are said by seismic experts to be larger than those in Britain's North Sea waters and could rival Saudi Arabia's reserves. Results so far have been mixed, though prospecting companies say it is early days yet for the quantities to be determined.

Critics say the Argentine campaign is populist and motivated to divert attention from the government's economic problems.

"I would like to ask, on behalf of my country and the countries of Latin America ... please reopen our negotiations over the sovereignty of the Malvinas," Fernandez said in a speech at the summit opening. Argentina calls the Falklands the Malvinas.

Britain's newly appointed Foreign Office Minister of State for Latin America Jeremy Browne responded in a statement, "We have no doubt about our sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. The principle of self-determination as set out in the U.N. charter applies. There cannot be negotiation on sovereignty unless and until the Falkland Islanders so wish."

He said the Lisbon Treaty also affirmed the EU position that the Falkland Islands is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.

Browne added, "While we disagree with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, we have a close and productive relationship on a range of other issues, including on economic issues in the G20 and on climate change, sustainable development and counter-proliferation."

Fernandez reacted to the new government in Britain by writing to Prime Minister David Cameron, asking him to stop the hydrocarbon prospecting activities.

"Recently, unilateral oil exploration activities have begun in the disputed area, which has been rejected by my government," Fernandez wrote in the letter, quoted by Argentine media. "I hope it will be possible for you to stop these operations in favor of fruitful cooperation with my country," she told Cameron.

Argentine condemnation of Britain reached a new pitch when an oil exploration round began in the Falkland Islands waters in late February. On May 6 British firm Rockhopper Exploration announced a first offshore discovery of crude oil, provoking further angry pronouncements from Argentina.

Argentina won support for its cause at the Union of South American Nations but when Buenos Aires approached the U.N. it was told to deal directly with Britain.

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