‘Islands would be better off without UK’

British relations in South America could falter if the UK government refuses to hand over the Falkland Islands to Argentina, the country’s ambassador to London said yesterday.

Alicia Castro tried to pull Argentina’s neighbours into the dispute, claiming UK diplomatic and business relations could be damaged if the islands were not handed over to Buenos Aires.

She said the islands would be better off if they cut their ties with the UK.

Describing the Falklands as a “colonial enclave”, she said her government would send teachers to the islands to teach Spanish. She said it also wanted to re-establish direct flights between the Falklands and Argentina.

But she claimed that Argentina “did not want to change the way of life” on the Falklands, while insisting the islands had to be “given back to Latin America as a whole”.

And she said an advert depicting an Argentine athlete using a British war memorial on the islands to train was not designed to upset relations between the two countries.