MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina blasts Uruguay for involving Army in pull mills dispute

Argentina's president urged Uruguay on Thursday not to send troops to guard a pulp mill on a border river with Argentina that is at the core of an escalating dispute between the South American neighbors.

"We don't deserve this affront and we hope he corrects this error" said President Nestor Kirchner said during a televised political rally, referring to his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabare Vazquez.

Uruguayan officials said on Wednesday that an unspecified number of soldiers would guard the perimeter of the grounds where the Finnish company Botnia is building a paper pulp mill along the Uruguay River that divides the two countries.

"For God's sake, let's not be unreasonable. Let's not take advantage of the situation and bring up xenophobia ghosts from the past", said Kirchner.

"We are a peace loving brotherly people; we love our Uruguayan brothers, even when we can have circumstantial differences", he insisted.

Environmentalists and residents of Gualeguaychu, a town on the Argentine side of the river fiercely oppose the project and have blocked the main highway leading to Uruguay off and on for months. The roadblocks have caused an estimated 400 million US dollars in losses to Uruguay's economy, Uruguayan officials say.

After a six-month halt, demonstrators resumed the protests this month. The renewed protests appeared to prompt Vazquez's decision to send troops.

The Argentine government says it is concerned about contamination and the plant's impact on tourism and fishing, while Uruguayans, backed with World Bank cumulative environmental impact assessments, insist the project is environmentally safe.

Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice in The Hague rejected an Argentine request to suspend construction of the project, which is due to begin operating in the third quarter of 2007. Argentina also claims Uruguay has ignored a River Uruguay joint management agreement dating back to 1975.

This week Uruguay filed a charge against Argentina complaining about the road blocks and the International Court of The Hague announced a hearing on the issue for next December 18.

Kirchner said he was hurt to read about the Uruguayan leader's decision in the newspapers.