STANLEY, Falkland Islands -- Residents of the Malvinas Islands, known as the Falklands to the British, will vote Sunday and Monday on whether to remain Britain's overseas territory.

However, Argentina has called the referendum "illegal" as most of the inhabitants of the islands off the southern coast of Argentina are not indigenous but of British descent.

Buenos Aires has been urging London in recent years to negotiate the territorial dispute while gathering support in South America, Africa and Asia.

"We are not asking you to agree with us, but only to sit down and negotiate," Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said.

"The UK negotiated with the dictatorship in Argentina that took power by force years after the (1982) war, but refuses to talk to us, a government elected by popular vote," she said.

Jorge Castro, a Cuban expert on international relations, told Xinhua the decision to hold a referendum was in response to Argentina's stronger territorial claim.

"The policy of Buenos Aires on the subject has deepened, and has the support of the region, which for instance, prohibits access to its ports by vessels with the island's flag. This has raised the geopolitical and strategic importance of the dispute," he said.

Brazil, an emerging power worried about Britain's projects in Antarctica, has unconditionally aligned with Buenos Aires on the matter.

The Gordian knot of the dispute is that, while Argentina stresses the primacy of the right of every sovereign state to protect its territorial integrity, it rejects the Malvinas islanders' right to self-determination.

The inhabitants of the Malvinas "are not indigenous or colonized. They are an imported British population," thus lacking the right to self-determination, said Emilio Cardenas, an Argentine expert and former ambassador to the United Nations.

The islanders, however, have cited Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, saying their position is not different from every other country in the America's, including Argentina. The populations of these nations were dominated by people of European descent when they sought independence from colonial powers in the early 19th century.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the Malvinas, 400 km off the coast of Argentina, want to be recognized as "islanders" rather than British.

The latest census shows 6 out of 10 of the respondents identified themselves as "islanders", twice those who responded as feeling "British".

Local island newspaper the Penguin News carried a front-page interview Friday with one international observer monitoring the vote, who said: "In the eyes of the United Nations, the principle of self-determination would be better considered if accompanied by a 'Free Association' to the UK rather than the status of 'British Overseas Territory'."

The referendum is likely to produce an overwhelming "yes" to remain as Britain's overseas territory, but if the "no" vote succeeds, or the "yes" vote gathers less support than expected, Argentina will undoubtedly renew its call for dialogue on the territorial dispute.

However, local press suggested the "no" vote would instead indicate a desire to start walking the unlikely path toward independence.