Buenos Aires, Jan 30 (IANS): Argentina has expressed strong opposition to the UK's recent installation of new anti-aircraft weaponry on the disputed Falklands Islands.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry noted that the Sky Sabre ground-based air defense system newly deployed on the South Atlantic archipelago triples the range of the former Rapier system, reports Xinhua news agency.

Argentina "rejects in the strongest terms the new deployment of British military weapons in the Malvinas Islands", over whose sovereignty the two countries have been locked in a dispute and fought a war in 1982, the Ministry added.

Argentina calls the disputed islands as Malvinas.

The recent deployment is "a new and unjustified show of force and a deliberate departure" from the calls of the UN and other international organisations for a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute, added the Ministry.

The South American country also stressed that "the alleged defensive status of the British military base in the South Atlantic is not only totally unjustified, but also represents a threat to the entire area".

Located off Argentina's southern Atlantic coast, the islands have been controlled by the UK since 1833, but Argentina insists on having sovereignty over the islands, which it deems as a vestige of colonial rule.