London - The Argentinian President, Mr Carlos Menem, yesterday reopened the debate over the Falklands war with Britain, first expressing his "regret" over the conflict and then insisting it was not an apology.
Writing in Britain's Sun daily, Mr Menem said the 1982 war following Argentina's invasion of the Falklands was "a conflict that should never have happened and that we deeply regret". But speaking to British correspondents in Buenos Aires, he promptly denied the remarks constituted an apology. "No, saying sorry is something completely different. That is not the way I expressed it," he said, quoted by the BBC.
He also made it clear Argentina had not given up its claim of sovereignty over the South Atlantic islands. Mr Menem's article for the Sun was arranged with the help of Downing Street before his visit to Britain next week, the first by an Argentine president since the war.
