MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mercosur-US military exercise suspended.

Argentine Foreign Affairs Secretary Rafael Bielsa announced this Wednesday the suspension in Argentina of a joint military exercise between Mercosur and United States troops scheduled for the end of October.

The suspension is motivated by the fact that the Argentine Congress has still to approve an immunity privilege for United States troops.

"Aguila III exercises will be deferred and a new date will be arranged", said Mr. Bielsa in an interview with the Buenos Aires press. "Uruguay is an alternative theatre" for the exercise involving military from United States, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina added the Argentine official.

However in Montevideo Deputy Defence Secretary Elías Bluth pointed out that the "exercise will not be deployed in Uruguay". Uruguayan military sources said that "we don't have the necessary preparations for such an operation".

The military exercise was originally scheduled to begin October 27 in the province of Mendoza, neighbouring with Chile.

Mr. Bielsa argued that suspension was conditioned to "congressional tempo", however the discussion has focused on "functional" immunity, (as described in the original proposal) or total immunity for the American troops as demanded by the United States.

"The exercise has been planned for over a year and Argentina was chosen as the location from the very beginning. Congress has to approve the bill and until this happens we have to wait", said Mr. Bielsa.

The White House is requesting total immunity to avoid having its servicemen exposed to the International Penal Court in Rome of which United States is not a signatory.