The African neighbours, both significant oil producers, have asked the United Nations' top court to settle a dispute centring on the tiny island of Mbanié, less than a kilometre (about 1 000 yards) long, off the coast of Gabon.

"Gabon's position is factually and legally untenable," said Equatorial Guinea's representative at the court, Domingo Mba Esono.

The conflict has been going on since 1972, when Gabon's army drove Equatorial Guinea soldiers from Mbanié. Gabon has since set up its own military presence on the virtually uninhabited island of just 74 acres (30 hectares).

But the dispute lay dormant until the early 2000s, when the prospect of oil rekindled interest in the Gulf of Guinea.

In 2016, after years of mediation by the United Nations, the countries signed an agreement that would ultimately let the ICJ, also known as the World Court, settle the dispute.

Equatorial Guinea bases its claim on the islands on a 1900 convention dividing up French and Spanish colonial assets in West Africa.

Gabon, meanwhile, says the ICJ should base its judgment on another agreement, from 1974. Equatorial Guinea says the document Gabon has offered as proof for the 1974 agreement is unsigned and not an original.

Hearings will last a week. Gabon presents its case on Wednesday.

The court is expected to give its final and binding ruling sometime next year.

--Reuters--