* Deal will give CNOOC an entry into Latin America

Stocks | Mergers & Acquisitions

* Will help CNOOC meet growth targets

* Deal expected to close as Bridas is a private firm

* CNOOC shares hit 2-mth high (Adds Bridas background from paragraph 21)

HONG KONG, March 15 (Reuters) - Chinese oil firm CNOOC's (0883.HK) purchase of a stake in Argentina's Bridas Holdings gives it a foothold in reserve-rich Latin America and should ease investor worries about its aggressive output targets.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese oil firm CNOOC's (0883.HK) purchase of a stake in Argentina's Bridas Holdings gives it a foothold in reserve-rich Latin America and should ease investor worries about its aggressive output targets.

"The deal is attractive for CNOOC in the sense that it's going to be strongly accretive in terms of reserves and adds to production in the near term," said Neil Beveridge, senior oil analyst at Sanford Bernstein.

hong kong--cnooc ltd. said sunday it has agreed to form an oil-production joint venture with argentina's bridas energy holdings ltd. for us$3.1 billion to boost its oil production and reserves. the beijing-based oil company's unit cnooc

march 14 (bloomberg) -- cnooc ltd., china's biggest offshore oil explorer, said it will pay $3.1 billion for a 50 percent stake in bridas corporation, argentina's largest crude exporter. bridas energy holdings ltd. will retain the remaining shares

• Statistics | Photos from Toyota Center Usually when Luis Scola scores like this, a bunch of guys from Argentina get to wear medals around their necks, or at the very least, qualify for some international tournament somewhere.

Instead, Scola gave the Rockets something that does come around more often than once every four years, but still was five weeks in the making.

With Scola scoring a career-high 44 points, the Rockets won a second-consecutive game for the first time since Feb. 5, with the Rockets pulling away in the fourth quarter to knock off the New Jersey Nets 116-108 at Toyota Center.

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--Total S.A. (FP.FR, TOT) is acquiring natural gas shale positions in France, Denmark, Argentina and North Africa, an exploration and production executive for the fifth-largest integrated oil company in the world said Wednesday.

Last week, the company acquired prospective shale acreage in central France, said Patrick Pouyanne, senior vice president for strategy business development at Total. Total made a ...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to undermine efforts by Latin American leaders toward regional unity.

His remarks Thursday come a day after Clinton accused Chavez of limiting freedoms in Venezuela.

As Chavez spoke, Clinton was in Costa Rica to urge officials from 16 Central and South American nations to do more on democracy and development.

Downing Street has rejected an offer from the US to help the UK and Argentina resolve their latest dispute over the Falkland Islands.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the offer after renewed tensions were triggered by a UK decision to drill for oil near the islands.

A spokesman for Gordon Brown said he welcomed her comments but did not think her direct involvement was necessary.

Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falklands, which it calls the Malvinas.

(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it is important for Argentina and Britain to hold talks about the disputed Falkland Islands, but she did not commit to mediating them.

Her remark came at the end of a two-hour meeting with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner late Monday in Buenos Aires, in which the Falklands was one of several international issues on the table.

Kirchner said she requested that the United States mediate the issue "so that we can sit down at the table and discuss sovereignty" of the islands, which are known as Las Malvinas in Argentina.

March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said she asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to assist in facilitating talks with the U.K. over the Falkland Islands.

Fernandez made the comments today in Buenos Aires during a meeting with Clinton. Argentina, which claims sovereignty over the islands that U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went to war to defend in 1982, summoned U.K. embassy officials on Feb. 2 to protest the imminent start of drilling by Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd.

Argentine President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner urged the United States on Monday to engage in "friendly mediation" between Argentina and Britain in their dispute over the Falkland or Malvinas Islands off the southern Argentine coast. The request came at a meeting in Buenos Aires with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton is making it clear that the United States supports direct dialogue between Britain and Argentina in the islands dispute that triggered a brief war between the two countries in 1982. But she is side-stepping an unusual public request by the Argentine leader for the United States to mediate the issue.

BUENOS AIRES, March 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday offered to help Britain and Argentina with negotiations concerning their competing claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Related Argentine president urges Britain to discuss Malvinas issue No plan to retake Malvinas islands by force Argentina seeks UN help to settle dispute over Malvinas islands Clinton makes her first visit to South America

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday she will bring 20 satellite phones and a technician with her when she visits earthquake-damaged Chile.

The gear and expertise are a down payment on help the United States intends to provide following last week's massive quake in Chile. Clinton was stopping briefly Tuesday in the capital as part of a Latin American trip rearranged because of the disaster.

* Fernandez signs new decrees to tap $6 bln in reserves

* Central bank immediately transfers funds to Treasury

* Opposition vows to block plan in courts and Congress

* New decrees could further delay swap of defaulted debt (Recasts with analysts' comments)

BUENOS AIRES, March 1 (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez revived her bid to tap more than $6 billion of foreign reserves to pay debt this year, but opposition parties immediately promised to fight her new strategy.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday offered to help Argentina and Britain resolve a festering dispute over a vast swath of the southern Atlantic Ocean where Britain has begun drilling for oil.

Speaking in Uruguay ahead of a hastily scheduled visit to Argentina, Clinton said the two countries should agree themselves over the sovereignty of the British-administered Falkland Islands, where the two nations fought a brief war in 1982.

And that's why it pays to read the clues.

This week's episode of "The Amazing Race" took the contestants from Chile to Argentina, where they searched the Andes for gunslingers, Travelocity gnomes, stolen money, fake horses and bandits.

What was missing for several teams was the ability to read the directions that they were given, whether that was to count the appropriate steps while searching for buried cash or where they had to go next.

U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton is due to meet with Argentina's president amid accusations of a snub to Britain over America's refusal to support the UK in the Falklands oil drilling row.

Mrs Clinton is to meet Cristina Ferndandez de Kirchner in Uruguay on March 1, Argentina's ambassador to the U.S. has announced.

Hopes are high in Argentina that Mrs Clinton will intervene on the country's behalf in the row with Britain over the disputed territory.

Jorge Taiana asked Ban Ki-moon to intervene in dispute with UK

Argentina has formally asked United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to bring the UK into talks over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said he had asked Mr Ban to help stop "further unilateral acts" by the UK.

Mr Taiana was referring to the UK's decision to begin oil drilling under a seabed off the islands.

UNITED NATIONS-Argentina's foreign minister says he asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to continue his efforts to resolve a dispute with Britain over their competing claims to a vast swath of the southern Atlantic Ocean where Britain has begun drilling for oil.

Jorge Taiana told reporters after a meeting Wednesday with Ban that the U.N. chief was not happy to learn that the situation is worsening because of Britain's decision to start drilling and is willing to continue his "good offices" mission.

Argentina's leader (left) appeared with Mr Calderon on Monday

Latin American and Caribbean leaders at a summit in Mexico have backed Argentina in its new row with the UK over the Falkland Islands.

Leaders of all 32 countries backed Argentine claims to the islands and condemned oil drilling operations that are already under way.

The row erupted after a UK firm began drilling for oil off the Falkland Islands and Argentina objected.