By Richard Lough
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Britain's remark that Argentina remains a threat to the disputed Falkland Islands is baseless and aimed at stirring nationalist sentiment ahead of a May general election in that country, a senior Argentine government official said on Wednesday.
Britain's defense secretary told lawmakers on Tuesday that it would reinforce its military presence on the Falklands to ensure they were properly protected.
"They are provoking Argentina, hoping that the country reacts in order to strengthen nationalist feelings ... thinking that it will favor them in their election," Daniel Filmus, a top official in the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs in charge of Falkland-related issues, said in an interview.
The secretary, Michael Fallon, had earlier told the BBC before addressing Parliament that Argentina's leftist government represented a "very live threat" to the islands, over which tensions still fizzle more than three decades after a brief war between the two countries.
Argentina's government claims the islands, which lie 300 miles (480 km) off the Argentine coast and 8,000 miles (12,870 km) from Britain, as its own. It has stepped up a campaign to get sovereignty over the islands - which Argentines call Las Malvinas - as nearby oil and gas exploration ratchets up tensions. About 2,800 people live on the islands, where the main industries are sheep farming, fishing and some tourism.
In 1982, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched a military task force to the Falkland Islands after Argentine troops seized them, winning them back in a conflict in which more than 600 Argentine and 255 British servicemen died.
The military victory helped Thatcher bounce back to re-election and remains an emotive subject for many Britons. British voters go to the polls on May 7 in what is expected to be a tight vote.
Filmus said Argentina would never be sucked into another war over the Falklands. He said there was no justification to talk of Argentina being a threat. Argentina's response would, he said, be through diplomatic channels.
Britain plans to deploy two Chinook helicopters to the Falklands beginning in mid-2016, upgrade communications and renew the surface-to-air missile defense system which is due to come out of service in 2020.
"This makes no sense because no one wants to attack. And so who are they defending themselves from?" Filmus said.