Argentines angry at Uruguay plant

Hundreds of Argentine environmental campaigners have crossed into neighbouring Uruguay to protest against a wood pulp plant they say will pollute a river that feeds Argentine farms and tourist sites.

Uruguayan riot police kept the peaceful protest more than 2km from the Botnia cellulose plant with roadblocks and a security fence.

Argentine protesters have sporadically blockaded three cross-border bridges, but Sunday was the first time they had entered Uruguay.

"The war that is lost is the one that is abandoned. We are never going to abandon this," Stella Maris, one of the demonstrators, said.

Uruguayan immigration and customs officials inspected each protester's car, letting them cross after seizing dozens of sticks used as poles to carry Argentine flags.

They said about 800 demonstrators in 220 vehicles took part in the demonstration.

"No to the paper plants!" read signs flown from car windows as the protest caravan arrived in the city of Fray Bentos on the Uruguay side of the border.

'Deeply concerned'

Omar Lafluf, a Fray Bentos government official, said residents are "deeply concerned" about the Argentine protesters entering Uruguay.

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