MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar sovereignty dispute intensifies.

The dispute over Gibraltar's future has intensified as Gibraltarians boycotted talks in Barcelona between Britain and Spain to try to resolve the 300-year-old dispute over sovereignty. Gibraltarians held a demonstration in protest.

Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Peter Caruana, angrily denounced the talks, declaring that Spanish participation in sovereignty over Gibraltar would be as "offensive" to Gibraltarians as would French participation in governing Britain. Responding to hints that a compromise deal could involve sharing sovereignty or gradually surrendering the territory to total Spanish control, Mr Caruana objected to participating in a process in which the UK and Spain could agree issues while ignoring Gibraltar. He said: "To suggest that we should change one colonial master for two, one of the two being the territorial claimant, is not a realistic offer". As the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, emerged from his Barcelona meeting with the Spanish Foreign Minister, Josep Pique, the United Kingdom admitted that the talks, planned to conclude within the next year, do include the controversial issue of sovereignty.

Mr Straw urged the Gibraltarians to accept a deal with Spain but repeated the British Government's pledge that any such deal would be put to the people of Gibraltar in a referendum.

The UK opposition Conservative party is strongly supporting Gibraltar's efforts to preserve its sovereignty. Its foreign affairs spokesman, Michael Ancram, travelling to Gibraltar, said: "I'm beginning to smell a stitch-up on the part of the British Government. They want to get rid of the Gibraltar problem". He said there should be no change in sovereignty without the people's consent.

Any Anglo-Spanish compromise for sharing or handing over sovereignty of Gibraltar could be seriously worrying for the Falklands Islands for fear it would encourage Argentina in pursuit of its claim to the Islands by citing a Gibraltar precedent. The Falklands government, in the run-up to an election to choose a new Legislative Council, is keeping a watchful eye on the Gibraltar dispute, which is getting extensive coverage in the Argentine media. Argentina's Ambassador to Spain, Ricardo Laferriere, said in Madrid that he is closely following what he called "the negotiations" between Britain and Spain over Gibraltar. He calls such a reconciliation a "unique opportunity that Argentina must not let pass" in its claim." There are many points of similarity