Chavez threatens Britain with Falklands pledge

Venezuela's left-wing president has raised the stakes over the Falklands Islands by pledging his armed forces would fight alongside Argentina in any conflict with Britain.

The inflammatory promise from Hugo Chavez came in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the April 1982 invasion of the islands by Argentina.

At the same time Foreign Secretary William Hague insisted the deployment of a British warship and Prince William to the Falklands was 'entirely routine'.

Mr Chavez was speaking at a meeting of the left-leaning ALBA bloc, an alliance of eight South American and Caribbean countries, which backed Argentina in its long-running dispute with Britain over the islands.

Argentina calls the islands Las Malvinas and claims they were 'stolen' by Britain 180 years ago.

'The issue of the Malvinas Islands is an issue that concerns us, especially with the strong language that has emerged from the British government, accusing Argentina of being colonialist,' Mr Chavez said at the meeting in Caracas. 'I'm speaking only for Venezuela, but if it occurs to the British empire to attack Argentina, Argentina won't be alone this time.'

The ALBA countries approved an agreement barring any boats flying Falkland Islands flags from docking in their ports. The member countries are Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Nicaragua, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Argentina hopes diplomatic and economic measures will pressure Britain to comply with United Nations resolutions encouraging both countries to negotiate the islands' sovereignty. British leaders have refused to do that, insisting the islanders have the right to self-determination.

Emotions have heightened recently with the deployment of Prince William, a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, to the islands on a military tour along with a warship ahead of the 30th anniversary of the ten-week Falklands War in which 255 members of the British forces died, along with three Falkland Islanders and 649 Argentines.

But Mr Hague said the deployments were routine as he revealed that commemorations would go ahead to mark the anniversary of the conflict.

'The events are not so much celebrations as commemorations,' he said.

'I think Argentina will also be holding commemorations of those who died in the conflict.

'Since both countries will be doing that, I don't think there is anything provocative about that. Nor is there anything provocative about entirely routine military movements.

'They are entirely routine - our ships regularly visit the South Atlantic. We will resist the diplomatic efforts of Argentina to raise the temperature on this.'

- Daily Mail