UK denies Gibraltar 'deal'

Britain gained possession of Gibraltar in 1704

LONDON, England -- Britain has reacted with anger to the idea of sharing sovereignty over Gibraltar with Spain.

The idea was raised by reports in the Spanish press of a proposed deal between the British and Spanish governments.

Britain's Foreign Ministry sought to play down suggestions that any such deal had been done with Spain to resolve an issue that has dogged relations between the two countries for years.

"The various press stories are conjecture and speculation," a Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters.

He added: "The two governments are committed to producing an agreement on Gibraltar by the summer. We expect the next ministerial meeting to take place in February. Preparations continue among officials.

"We have always said that sovereignty is one of the aspects. It is not helpful to speculate on possible outcomes.

"We stand by the 1969 Gibraltar constitution commitment that we will never agree any change in sovereignty against the freely and democratically expressed wishes of the Gibraltarians."

Britain's opposition Conservative Party remained suspicious despite the FO statement.

The Conservative foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram flatly rejected any notion of shared sovereignty.

"This confirms what we have long suspected that the government is involved in putting together a deal to sell out British sovereignty and try and bounce the people of Gibraltar into accepting such a deal," Ancram said.

"We should make no mistake, sovereignty shared is sovereignty surrendered," he said.

Lindsay Hoyle MP, who heads Britain's All-Party Parliamentary group on Gibraltar, said he thought the reports of a deal were well founded.

"I think there's quite a lot of truth in it," Hoyle, a member of Tony Blair's ruling Labour Party, told Reuters.

"I think it's totally unacceptable. A referendum should be given to the people of Gibraltar and I would expect that whatever the result was would be the way forward and that that result should be respected as well."

The Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted an unnamed Spanish diplomatic source on Friday saying that an agreement on shared sovereignty would represent a step forward.

"The Spanish-British agreement would be useful even if it were rejected in the (Gibraltar) referendum, because it would be a landmark in the history of the dispute, so that the next negotiation should start off from what is achieved now," the source said.

The paper also quoted an unnamed British diplomatic source who said that the people of Gibraltar were likely to resist any such deal.

"We recognise that it is going to be very difficult to convince the Gibraltarians that the option we offer them is the best. For that, we are going to need a lot of support from the Spanish government," the source said.

Gibraltar is cut off from Europe by Spanish territory and Spain maintains an embargo on Gibraltar banning air and ship traffic and has blocked mobile phone agreements.

Britain gained possession in 1704 and later won formal control in the Treaty of Utrecht, which granted Spain first right to reclaim Gibraltar if its status changed.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw held talks with the Spanish government about the future of Gibraltar in Barcelona last November.

Britain and Spain will hold further ministerial discussions next month as part of the "Brussels process," a series of meetings begun between Britain and Spain in 1984 to discuss various aspects of Gibraltar.