Argentina has begun legal proceedings against three British and two US companies for drilling oil near the Falkland Islands.
Daniel Filmus, Argentina's minister for the islands - called the Malvinas locally - announced the case in London.
The companies involved are Falkland Oil and Gas, Premier Oil, Rockhopper, Edison International and Noble Energy.
Mr Filmus told the BBC the companies were "performing illegal acts by entering Argentine territory".
He added: "I want to make it clear for the directors of these companies and for British public opinion that Argentina will use the full force of the law - both national and international law - to prevent these countries from taking the riches which belong to 40 million Argentine citizens.
"Argentina has extradition treaties around the world and we intend to use them."
He added that the area being drilled was "as much ours as the centre of Buenos Aires. Neither the UK nor any other country would allow anyone to enter their territory and take away their riches."
'Our right'
In response, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond accused the Argentines of "outrageous bullying".
He said the islanders had a "perfect right to develop their own economic resources and Argentina needs to stop this kind of behaviour and start acting like a responsible member of the international community".
The Falklands Islands government also said the Argentines had no case.
"We have the right to develop our economy, including the hydrocarbons industry, and we are exercising that right," it said.
"It is worth remembering that it was the government of Argentina who walked away from working with the Falkland Islands on the development of a hydrocarbons industry some years ago.
"Argentine domestic law does not apply to the Falkland Islands and this latest action is clearly another attempt by Argentina to try to block economic growth in the Falkland Islands."
Counterproductive
Analysts suggested Argentina would have little joy in the courts.
"The Argentines will lose," Malcolm Bracken at Redmayne Bentley told the BBC. "They have no jurisdiction - the UN settled the matter in 1982."
In fact, he said the country's current position would prove counterproductive.
"All they're doing is handing any possible benefit that Argentina may have had from the oil boom in the south Atlantic to Chile.
"There'd be an awful lot of logistic support needed for drilling that simply isn't available in the Falklands. They'd need a port somewhere and that's likely to be near Chile rather than Argentina, so they're cutting their own nose off to spite their face."
Earlier this month, Argentine foreign ministry officials said they would prosecute oil companies operating near the Falkland Islands. The officials said companies active there were operating illegally in Argentine territory.
This came after the three British oil companies announced new oil and gas finds north of the islands, and as Argentina marked the 33rd anniversary of the war with the UK over the islands.
Tensions between the UK and Argentina were already running high after the UK announced it would spend £280m over the next 10 years on improving defences on the islands.
Guide to the islands:
The Falkland Islands are an isolated and sparsely populated British overseas territory in the south-west Atlantic Ocean
They remain the subject of a sovereignty dispute between Britain and Argentina, which waged a brief but bitter war over the territory in 1982
Argentine forces landed on the Falklands on 2 April 1982 to stake a territorial claim, but by 14 June they had been ejected by a British military task force
The fighting cost the lives of 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen
Argentina says it has a right to the islands, which it calls the Malvinas, because it inherited them from the Spanish crown in the early 1800s
It has also based its claim on the islands' proximity to the South American mainland
Britain rests its case on its long-term administration of the Falklands and on the principle of self-determination for the islanders, who are almost all of British descent.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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