MADRID: The UK government on Sunday recognized the failure of its attempts to solve the 300-year-old dispute with Spain over Gibraltar and placed co-sovereignty talks on ice indefinitely.

Recognition that the talks had failed came in two Spanish newspaper interviews given by the UK’s Europe minister, Denis MacShane, in which he warned the conservative government of Jose Maria Aznar that its only hope of gaining some control over the Rock lay in wooing the Gibraltarians themselves. “We no longer live in the 18th or 19th centuries when diplomats could sign treaties and people had to obey them,” Mr MacShane told El Pais newspaper.

“For the British people and parliament the chances of reaching an agreement that is not accepted by the Gibraltarians are simply zero. I’ve been in politics too long to waste my time bashing my head against a wall.”

His comments came as a rebuttal to the Spanish prime minister, who wrote a letter to Tony Blair on May 19 asking for the co-sovereignty negotiations to resume.

Mr Aznar’s letter was followed up last week by his foreign minister, Ana Palacio, who said she would like to close a deal to see “the Spanish flag flying over the Rock” within a year.

But Mr MacShane explicitly dashed Spanish hopes that Britain would sign a co-sovereignty deal despite the massive opposition shown by Gibraltarians when their chief minister, Peter Caruana, called a referendum on the issue last November. That vote, although not binding on the British government, saw 17,900 Gibraltarians reject any co-sovereignty deal with Spain while only 187 voted in favour.

In comments bound to sting Madrid, Mr MacShane likened the people of Gibraltar to those of Ceuta and Melilla — two Spanish enclaves on the north African coast. These are claimed by Morocco but are, according to the Spanish constitution, an integral part of Spain’s territory.

“Gibraltar is historically linked to Britain just as Ceuta and Melilla are to Spain,” he told El Mundo. He told El Pais: “The people of Gibraltar feel their British identity with the same strength as the people of Ceuta and Melilla feel their Spanish identity.”

The minister also appeared to warn Spain against taking reprisals against Gibraltar, through another tightening of border controls or other measures, to punish it for scuppering the co-sovereignty deal.

Only by winning hearts and minds on the Rock, he suggested, would Spain achieve its aim of regaining a share of the sovereignty it signed away at the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

“The way forward is to use persuasion, not pressure, through cooperation and consultation, not confrontation.”

Talks to push ahead with a co-sovereignty deal had, in effect, been suspended until something happened to calm the anger of the Gibraltarians, he said.

“We need a period of calm, of friendly and positive relations in this corner of Europe and afterwards, in coming years, we will be able to go forwards,” he said.

At no time in the interviews did Mr MacShane suggest that the medium or long-term aim of the British government was not to go ahead with co-sovereignty — the main policy change agreed during the negotiations in the year before the referendum.

“It was a positive year [of talks],” he said. “It wasn’t possible to reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

Mr MacShane’s words were deemed “offensive and dangerous” by the foreign affairs spokesman of Spain’s Socialist party, Manuel Marin.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.