Tensions between Bolivia and Chile reached new heights on Thursday with an escalation in the war of words between the countries' leading politicians over Bolivia's sea access rights.

Bolivian President Evo Morales called on the Organization of American States (OAS) to hold an "emergency" meeting to deal with the dispute following remarks by Chile's Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley.

"We are calling for an urgent, emergency, extraordinary OAS meeting to deal with one topic: sea for Bolivia," Morales told a crowd at the Heroes Plaza in Bolivia's administrative capital La Paz.

The crowd had gathered in La Paz to commemorate Sea Day, which honors Bolivians who lost their lives in the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific. The war was a three-way conflict between Chile, Bolivia and Peru, which ended with Chile winning mineral-rich coastal territory, leaving Bolivia with no access to the Pacific Ocean.

Chile's foreign minister on Thursday said his country was not ready to change the 1904 treaty, signed by the two countries on territorial limits, peace and friendship, adding that international treaties did not get rewritten "just because one party decides it."

But Morales said he was confident that Chile would pay attention to this "honorable aspiration" within the framework of South American integration projects.

The OAS's last statement on the issue, in 1979, called on Chile to make an effort to resolve the conflict, but fell short of giving Bolivia everything it wanted.

Source: Xinhua