British Prime Minister David Cameron has confronted Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner over the Falkland Islands.

According to Argentina's Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman, Cameron initially approached de Kirchner at the G20 summit to discuss the Central Bank of Europe, and the conversation turned to the Falkland Islands.

Cameron urged de Kirchner to respect the referendum that the residents of the Falkland Islands will have in 2013.

In response she tried to give Cameron an envelope with resolutions that the United Nations has passed on the issue.

Timerman said: "The Prime Minister walked away unwilling to receive the envelope."

Earlier this month, de Kirchner pressed her country's claim to the Falkland Islands with a high-profile appearance before the UN, on the 30th anniversary of Britain's ousting of an Argentine invasion force.

Argentina claims Britain has illegally occupied the islands since 1833, but Britain disputes this saying the country ignores the wishes of the island's three thousand residents who have expressed a desire to remain British.

The clash over the islands flared into a brief war in 1982 when Argentina's then-military dictatorship invaded the archipelago.