Gibraltar's future to be sealed by summer

The Government was accused of preparing to "stitch up" the people of Gibraltar on Tuesday night after Britain and Spain announced they hoped to resolve the centuries-old dispute over the territory by next summer.

The Government was accused of preparing to "stitch up" the people of Gibraltar on Tuesday night after Britain and Spain announced they hoped to resolve the centuries-old dispute over the territory by next summer.

The countries issued a joint communiqué setting September 2002 as the deadline for an agreement on Gibraltar's future, three months sooner than previously indicated.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, insisted after a meeting in Barcelona with his Spanish counterpart that no change would be enacted without the consent of the former colony's residents.

However, Josep Pique, the Spanish Foreign Minister, revealed that the key question of sovereignty would be central to a settlement. He was also adamant that Spain would not yield to Gibraltar's demand for self-determination.

The ministers nevertheless insisted they were optimistic an agreement could be reached that would benefit all parties, but gave no concrete details.

The Tories accused the Government of accelerating the negotiation process because ministers wanted to "sell out" the former colony in the name of better EU relations.

Up to 30 Gibraltarians protested in the street before the meeting, holding banners that read, "British Gibraltar, Not For Sale".

Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's Chief Minister, boycotted the talks in protest at not being treated as an independent delegation. Mr Pique confirmed the planned agreement would "cover all sorts of topics including co-operation and sovereignty". He said they had agreed to meet again on an unspecified date at the beginning of next year.

Mr Straw said there was no intention to abandon the Gibraltarians' right to a referendum on their future, a point backed up by Downing Street throughout the day.

"My overriding interest is the interests of the people of Gibraltar, and to secure for them a future where Gibraltar would have greater self-government and a more stable, secure and prosperous future," he said.

Britain took over Gibraltar in 1704 and was ceded sovereignty in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Annual talks on the dispute began in 1984, but ran aground in 1997 over Spanish proposals to share sovereignty for a 50-year period and then make the territory wholly Spanish.

Yesterday's negotiations were the first at a ministerial level since Britain and Spain agreed this summer to relaunch the process. As well as affecting bilateral relations, the dispute has resulted in the blocking of several European Union directives.

Many of Gibraltar's 30,000 residents are opposed to Spanish rule, but want an end to the tight restrictions on their travel movements by Madrid. In the talks, the ministers discussed a Spanish proposal to triple the number of telephone numbers for Gibraltar to 100,000 and ways to improve public health care facilities available to Gibraltarians in Spain.

Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary who visited Gibraltar yesterday, said the "suspicion, concern and anger" of Gibraltarians would be worsened by the ministerial meeting. "There is a genuine, and I believe realistic, fear that they will be presented with a 'done deal' affecting their sovereignty, which they will then be under enormous political and financial pressure to accept. That would be neither free nor democratic," he said.