The Argentine Navy has ordered a former officer to be detained for two months over widely-condemned comments he made defending his role in repression carried out during the era of military rule.

In an interview published in a weekly magazine Tres Puntos, former Captain Alfredo Astiz said the Navy trained him to destroy, set bombs and kill -- and that he had no remorse.

The interior minister Carlos Corach described his comments as dreadful, while relatives of the disappeared the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo said the interview proved that military officers involved in the so-called dirty war should be punished since they had not repented.

Mr Astiz has benefitted from a blanket amnesty approved after Argentina returned to democracy.

President Carlos Menem has nevertheless asked the Navy to punish him.

The ex-officer has been convicted in absentia by a French court for the abduction and disappearance of two French nuns.
 

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