Argentina and the United Kingdom are embroiled in a new row over the Falkland Islands, this time about the start of oil prospecting north of the island group.

Buenos Aires has lodged an "energetic protest" with London about imminent plans for gas and oil exploration and extraction in the Argentine continental shelf area.

Argentina also complained that London continues to ignore UN resolutions calling on both governments to renew a dialogue on the sovereignty of the South Atlantic archipelago.

Last month, Britain rejected Argentina's latest claim to the Falklands, more than a quarter century after the two nations went to war over their respective territorial claims to  "Las Malvinas" - as they are known in Spanish - in 1982. Following the occupation of the islands by Argentina's then military dictatorship, Argentina and Britain fought for 74 days in an intense conflict that left 649 Argentines and 255 British dead.

Falklands War: British sink the Belgrano in 1982 killing 368 people. Photo from Flickr.com