United Nations ( CNN ) -- Thirty years after hundreds died in a fight over the disputed Falkland Islands , the Argentine president on Thursday urged Britain to once again try to resolve the conflict -- this time , at the negotiating table . `` We have to leave behind us this outdated story , this outdated history , and build a new history based on dialogue , '' President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said at the U.N. headquarters in New York during a meeting of the world body 's decolonization committee . `` We 're not asking that we 're told we are right , we 're just asking to talk , '' she said . `` We are not asking for anyone to say , yes , the Malvinas are Argentinas : We are asking for no more , no less , than to sit down at a table and talk . '' Argentina invaded the Falklands -- known as the Malvinas in Argentina -- in 1982 , prompting a war in which more than 600 Argentinian and 255 British troops died . Following the war , Britain retained control of the islands , which are off Argentina 's coast in the South Atlantic Ocean . About 2,500 people from `` over 150 nationalities '' now live and work on the islands , in addition to 1,700 stationed at the British military 's Mount Pleasant Complex there , according to the islands ' government website . Argentina has persistently criticized the British presence and has renewed its claims to the islands . But some British leaders have fought back , with Prime Minister David Cameron earlier this year describing Argentina 's stance as `` far more like colonialism , because these people want to remain British . '' Roger Edwards , a member of the Falkland Islands legislature , told the U.N. committee on Thursday that Argentina was not only trying to prevent people from exercising `` our democratic rights , '' but they were ignoring what transpired three decades earlier . `` I accept that Argentina has changed , and I am pleased that it has , '' Edwards said . `` However , I do not understand how the government of Argentina can absolve itself and its people from its recent past , while simultaneously seeking to punish and harm a small and peaceful Falkland Islands ' people for something it incorrectly claims to have happened almost two centuries ago . '' The legislator was referring to Argentina 's claim that Britain forcibly wrested the islands from its control in 1833 . An account by British Foreign Secretary William Hague on the Falklands ' government website claims that Britain first possessed the islands in 1765 -- decades before Argentina achieved independence from Spanish imperial rule . Edwards insisted Thursday that 'the islands were never Argentine ( and ) no Argentines were ever forcibly expelled from the islands in 1833 . '' Yet Kirchner , in her passionate testimony Thursday , insisted that Britain does not have a rightful , historical claim to the islands . And geographically , she said , it makes no sense . `` How can it be claimed with 14,000 kilometers away , that this territory is part of British territory ? '' she said . Kirchner also pointed to a host of U.N. resolutions addressing decolonization . She suggested that it was no coincidence that these measures had had no effect on London 's sovereignty over the Falklands . `` In reality , what 's happening here is the United Kingdom is benefiting from its privileged position as a permanent member of the ( U.N. ) security council , '' she said .
Argentina 's president tells a British panel : ` ` We 're just asking to talk '' about Falkland Islands . She claims Argentina 's standing on the U.N. Security Council has prevented this . An Argentine legislator claims the Falklands ` ` were never Argentine '' Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982 , but they stayed under British control .