Uruguay has denied Argentina's allegation claiming it ignored "irreversible" environmental damage to the Uruguay River at the International Criminal Tribunal (ITC) in the Hague, the Netherlands, local press said on Tuesday.
Argentina also accused Uruguay of allowing the establishment of Finnish cellulose company Botnia near the river bordering the two countries without Argentina's agreement, and presented evidence of the polluting results the factory caused in the last hearing of the case at the ITC on Monday.

"Uruguay has fulfilled ... all the steps before the establishment of the Botnia plant," Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez said during his official visit to Washington, the United States, local press reported.
Vazquez mentioned that Argentine President Nestor Kirchner sent a report to the Argentine Congress at that time, saying that "there was an agreement with Uruguay" to establish the plant.

Vazquez said Argentina's arguments "are not so solid to be sustained."
He said that the Argentine claims on the Botnia plant are false and added that those allegations "are absolutely unfounded."
"We must go to the place to see if there is any environmental damage," Vazquez said.
The ICT will announce the judgment between March and April in 2010.

PEOPLE DAILY - CHINA - 16 setiembre 2009