Buenos Aires: Argentina is complaining about a British military training exercise near the Falkland Islands.

Argentina lost a brief but bloody 1982 war with Britain over the South Atlantic archipelago and still claims the islands.

Argentina's foreign ministry said in a statement late yesterday that it rejects a naval and military training exercise in what it says is "Argentine territory illegitimately occupied by the United Kingdom."

The foreign ministry said that the exercise included the firing of 136 shells from the HMS Iron Duke, and said it was a provocation aimed at showing the firepower of the British frigate.

The statement said the ministry has called in an official in charge of the British embassy in Buenos Aires to demand explanations.