Robin Cook: Talks began in May

It is also believed that ministers are close to reaching a settlement which would allow Argentine passport holders to visit the islands, the first time since the 1982 conflict between the UK and Argentina.

Falkland Islands councillors were also due to attend the talks. The resumption of air flights to Port Stanley is unacceptable to many of the 2,000 islanders.

On Sunday, some 300 people protested in the capital by burning an Argentine flag.

The islands' isolation grew in March when Chile cancelled flights to the Falkland Islands in protest against the UK's detention of the former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.

Guido Di Tella: 'Flight ban 'scandalous'

Earlier this month, Mr Di Tella met representatives of the UK and the Falklands in New York.

The three-way talks were begun in May in London - the such first such contact since the conflict between the UK and Argentina.

The Argentineans want to address migration, transit, commerce, investment, fishing, oil, communications and flights.

Mr Di Tella has said the ban on direct flights was ''scandalous'' and projected a horrible and pathetic image of the islanders to the rest of the world.