Argentina's Fernandez says Britain's Cameron 'almost ill mannered'

Tensions over the Falkland Islands flared again on Wednesday, with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez referring to Britain's leader as "almost ill-mannered" in his comments to an official of her government over the contested archipelago.

At a meeting of Latin American countries with the European Union in Brussels, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman had a heated exchange with Prime Minister David Cameron over the islands' sovereignty. The two countries fought a brief war over the South Atlantic islands in 1982, which Britain won.

At the meeting, Timerman denounced Britain for clinging to a "colonialist" policy, and Cameron referred to the comments as "threatening," according to Argentine state news service Telam. "The prime minister's response was irate, almost ill mannered," Fernandez said during a public address.

In April Argentina started legal proceedings in one of its courts against five companies, of which three are British, that are drilling for oil and gas off the Falkland Islands, a move Britain denounced as bullying. Britain administers the islands, known as the Malvinas in Argentina, as an overseas territory. The archipelago's population of around 3,000 voted overwhelmingly to remain under British rule in a referendum in 2013.  

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