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Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announces she has asked for Pope Francis’ intervention in the Falklands dispute between her country and the UK.

Visiting the Vatican, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said she had asked Pope Francis to promote dialogue between the two sides.

Argentine Pope Francis was elected last week and will be formally installed as pontiff at a Mass on Tuesday.

In the past Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio has said the Falkland Islands, a UK overseas territory, belong to Argentina.

Before being elected as the new pontiff, the 76-year-old was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Relations between him, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and her late husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner, were tense.

“I asked for his intervention to avoid problems that could emerge from the militarization of Great Britain in the south Atlantic,” Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner told reporters after a 15-20 minute meeting and lunch with the Pope.

“We want a dialogue and that’s why we asked the pope to intervene so that the dialogue is successful.”

There has been no word yet as to how the Pope responded to the appeal.

In a referendum held a week ago, people in the Falkland Islands voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining a UK overseas territory.

At a Mass last year, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio told Argentine veterans of the Falklands War: “We come to pray for all who have fallen, sons of the Homeland who went out to defend their mother, the Homeland, and to reclaim what is theirs.”

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announces she has asked for Pope Francis' intervention in the Falklands dispute between her country and the UK

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announces she has asked for Pope Francis’ intervention in the Falklands dispute between her country and the UK

British Prime Minister David Cameron said last week that he “respectfully” disagreed with the view expressed in the past by Pope Francis that the Falkland Islands had been “usurped” by the UK.Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is the first head of state Pope Francis has met. She presented him with a mate gourd and straw for drinking traditional Argentine tea.

The two also kissed, and the president remarked afterwards: “Never in my life has a pope kissed me!”

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gave a muted welcome to the Pope’s election. The two have clashed in the past, especially over social reforms promoted by her and her late husband in the face of Church opposition.

When the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio argued that gay adoptions discriminated against children, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said his tone harked back to “medieval times and the Inquisition”.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner once referred to Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the “head of the opposition”.

Last year, the cardinal said Argentina was being harmed by demagoguery, totalitarianism, corruption and efforts to secure unlimited power, the Associated Press reports.

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UK’s newspaper The Sun has taken out an advert in an English-language paper in Argentina defending Britain’s right to govern the Falkland Islands.

The advert is a response to an open letter from Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, which was printed in two British papers.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has insisted the islanders must decide their own future.

Argentina invaded the islands in 1982 but was driven out by British forces.

A referendum on the islands’ political status is to be held in March.

On Thursday, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner published an open letter to David Cameron, in the Guardian newspaper and the Independent, repeating calls for the islands – which are known as the Malvinas in Argentina – to come under the sovereignty of her nation.

The Sun has taken out an advert in an English-language paper in Argentina defending Britain's right to govern the Falkland Islands

The Sun has taken out an advert in an English-language paper in Argentina defending Britain’s right to govern the Falkland Islands

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner urged David Cameron to abide by a 1965 UN resolution to “negotiate a solution” to the dispute.

But The Sun responded by taking out an advert in the Buenos Aires Herald – an English-language paper with a circulation of around 20,000 – telling Argentina to keep its “hands off”.

The advert refers to the 649 Argentines and 255 British servicemen whose lives were lost in the 1982 war and said it was a conflict fought to defend the principle of self-determination.

The ad goes on to dispute Argentina’s claim to the islands and points out British sovereignty dates back to 1765.

It ends with the words: “Until the people of the Falkland Islands choose to become Argentinean, they remain resolutely British.”

But the journalist Daniel Schweimler, who lives in Argentina, said The Sun’s message would not go down well.

Daniel Schweimler, who is based in Buenos Aires, said: “I’ve been here seven years now, and have never come across an Argentine who doesn’t believe that the Falklands belong to Argentina.”

“There’s never been any animosity towards me when I say I’m British, but I think it’s fair to say that almost across the board in a country of 40 million people that Las Malvinas, the Falklands, belong to them,” he added.

Argentine journalist Celina Andreassi agreed and says The Sun’s advert was quite provocative.

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