By Sarah Morris
LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) - Spain and Britain agreed on Tuesday to work towards a solution to end weeks of skirmishes between the British territory's police and Spanish fisherman, even if their positions remain some way apart.
Spain has accused police from the British territory - a peninsular off the south of Spain - of chasing its fishermen from Spanish waters in recent weeks and has deployed Civil Guard officers to protect the boats.
Gibraltar and Britain say the police are simply enforcing a law that regulates fishing within the waters of the port of the peninsular ceded to the British in 1713 after a 1704 capture.
"We reiterated our joint support for a local solution to the current fishing dispute in Gibraltar. Clearly our views on this differ, but we both recognise the importance of establishing a dialogue between all parties," said British Foreign Minister William Hague.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo y Marfil has said the country will continue to protect the country's fishermen in a dispute that has reignited tensions between the two countries over the sovereignty of the peninsular which Spain has long claimed as its own.
"Both sides urge the government of Gibraltar and the fishermen to find a satisfactory agreement that allows our boats to work where they always have done," he said.
Earlier this month, Spain's Queen Sofia pulled out of a lunch to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Britain's Queen Elizabeth as the dispute escalated and after news broke that Prince Edward of Britain would visit the Rock next month.
Spain's right-leaning government led by Mariano Rajoy has taken a strident attitude on Gibraltar, which houses traditional British red phone boxes, pubs and fish and chip shops.
It believes the former Socialist government dealt a fatal blow to negotiations over its future by allowing three-way talks to include the pro-British Gibraltar government.
(Additional reporting by Nigel Davies and Matt Falloon in London; Editing by Jon Hemming)
