BUENOS AIRES A cloud of smoke was over Buenos Aires yesterday after extensive bush fires were started by cattle ranchers and soya bean farmers. The smoke choked the Argentine capital, closing roads, the port and airport, as the pall reached Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, 140 miles away.

“There's 70,000 hectares (270 sq miles) of fields on fire in the Paraná river delta” north of Buenos Aires, said Florencio Randazzo, the Interior Minister, referring to an area the size of Cape Town.

The smoke filled hospitals with people complaining of respiratory and eye problems and for a few hours closed two main highways.

In southern Uruguay, east of Buenos Aires across the River Plate, the smoke caused delays at three airports. Mr Randazzo blamed the fires on cattle ranchers in Buenos Aires province, north of the capital, who were renewing their grassland. He said firefighters were coping with 300 grassland blazes, some of which needed aircraft support.

The National Institute of Farming and Livestock Technology blamed the fires on farmers clearing land for soya bean crops, Argentina's chief export. Mr Randazzo said they would face charges for environmental harm and damaging health. (AFP)

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