A man burns a British flag in front of the Foreign Ministry building in Buenos Aires Tuesday. Argentina is embroiled in a growing dispute with Britain over the latter's plans to drill for oil off the Falkland Islands, which Argentina claims as its own despite losing the Falklands War in 1982. (Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press)

Argentina's foreign minister asked the head of the United Nations on Wednesday to help resolve a dispute over a vast swath of the southern Atlantic Ocean near the Falkland Islands where the British have begun drilling for oil.

Following a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in Geneva, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana told reporters Ban was not happy tensions have worsened because of Britain's decision to start drilling. Ban told Taiana he was willing to continue his "good offices" mission, the Argentine minister said.

Tensions worsen

Taiana said he had a "very cordial, positive" meeting with Ban but did not say whether Ban indicated that the UN would press the U.K. to negotiate with Argentina over control of the islands. Argentina lost the islands to Britain in the 1982 Falklands War but has continued to claim them as its own.

The UN General Assembly has previously called for Argentina and Britain to negotiate sovereignty over the islands.

"As British ministers have made clear, the U.K. has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands," British ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant said in a statement issued at the UN after Taiana's meeting with Ban.

"This position is underpinned by the principle of self-determination as set out in the UN charter. We are also clear that the Falkland Islands government is entitled to develop a hydrocarbons industry within its waters, and we support this legitimate business in Falklands' territory."

Taiana insisted that the islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas, are part of Argentine territory and that the population, which strongly favours retaining ties to Britain, does not have the unilateral right to decide which country it wants to be aligned with.

Jan Cheek, a member of the islands' local legislative assembly, said Argentina's demand for sovereignty talks ignores the rights of islanders, who clearly want to be British.

"It seems to many of us that Argentina is indulging in a little latter-day colonialism in ignoring our right to self-determination and seeking to make us a colony of Argentina," said Cheek.

Taiana claimed the U.K.'s oil-drilling operation is "an illegal act that goes against international law and against express UN resolutions asking that neither side take unilateral actions that could aggravate the situation."

'Open to a partnership'

The issue heated up this week when Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner protested the start of British oil drilling near the Falklands, calling it "robbery." She had already imposed restrictions on ships that pass through seas near the islands, but Britain told its ship captains to ignore them.

The U.K. oil venture is the first exploratory drilling in the area in more then a decade and is expected to produce approximately 60 million barrels of oil.

Victorio Taccetti, Argentina's deputy foreign affairs minister, told CBC that Argentina is "open to sitting at a table to start negotiations on the sovereignty of the islands."

Should the talks veer in that direction, Argentina is "open to a partnership" with respect to the drilling, Taccetti said.

Both countries are committed to peaceful negotiations and have ruled out military action.

Argentina's call for negotiations won support this week at a summit of every country in the Western Hemisphere save the U.S. and Canada. Leaders meeting in Mexico backed "the legitimate rights of the Argentine Republic" but stopped short of directly endorsing its claim to sovereignty. Their resolution also did not specifically mention oil drilling.

Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva criticized the United Nations for not pushing more forcefully to reopen the Falklands debate.

"What is the geographic, the political or economic explanation for England to be in Las Malvinas?" Silva asked. "Could it be because England is a permanent member of the UN Security Council [where] they can do everything and the others nothing?"

Taiana said Argentina will not back down in its fight for the islands.

With files from The Associated Press