Spain and Britain have agreed to restart consultations on Gibraltar to try to resolve the 300-year-old sovereignty dispute over the British colony on Spain's southern coast. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Wednesday the two countries would discuss setting up a new forum that would give Gibraltar a say in talks on its future. Spain ceded the tiny rocky outcrop to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht and has been trying to get it back ever since. Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana welcomed the new talks after having boycotted the previous round of Spanish-British negotiations in 2001 and 2002, when Gibraltar was only offered a seat as part of the British delegation. "We look forward to the opportunity to engage in this process of cooperation and to participate in open-agenda, properly structured dialogue," said Caruana, who ended three years of silence between Madrid and Gibraltar last month when he held informal talks with a senior diplomat. --More 2233 Local Time 1933 GMT
