Hachén, a professor of ethnolinguistics at the public National University of Rosario, is one of the organisers of the parallel meeting, which will be called the Congreso de LaS LenguaS (Congress of the LanguageS).

But the head of the Argentine Academy of Letters, Pedro Barcia, told IPS that such criticisms ''merely repeat a commonplace that has already been resolved.

''Since 10 years ago, the RAE neither accepts nor rejects terms, but when incorporating words, seeks a consensus among all of the academies in Spanish-speaking countries,'' he said.

Barcia maintained that the RAE -- the institution that regulates the Spanish language -- no longer has authority over the language, because it was forced to recognise that nine out of 10 Spanish-speakers are from Latin America.

''It is incredibly ignorant to continue arguing that the RAE imposes the language on the rest of the world's Spanish-speakers,'' he said.

''Not even the dictionary will continue to be called the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, because starting with the next edition, it will become the Dictionary of the Spanish Language, and all of the decisions reached are 'pan-Hispanic','' Barcia added.

Hachén is aware of these advances, but says the academies still want to maintain control over the language.

Like a number of social institutions and other academics, Hachén will only take part in the ''counter-conference'', the first Congreso de LaS LenguaS, whose organisers believe that ''the only 'owners' of a language are its speakers, who do not need academies or institutions to impose the rules for speaking properly.''

Argentina is hosting the third official International Congress of the Spanish Language, whose first edition was held in 1997 in the central Mexican city of Zacatecas and the second in 2001 in Valladolid in northern Spain. The meetings are inaugurated by Spain's prime minister and King Juan Carlos.

The official November congress is organised by the RAE, the Cervantes Institute -- which answers to Spain's Education Ministry -- and by an executive committee comprised of representatives of the Argentine government and the Argentine Academy of Letters.

Under the theme 'Linguistic Identity and Globalisation', this year's congress is scheduled for Nov. 17-20 in Rosario, Argentina's third-largest city, located in the eastern province of Santa Fe.

The prominent guests invited to take part include the presidents and prime ministers of Latin America and Spain, and writers like Héctor Tizón, Juan José Saer and Ernesto Sábato from Argentina, Mario Benedetti of Uruguay, Spain's Francisco Ayala and Mexico's Carlos Fuentes.

U.S. President George W. Bush has also been invited to attend. ''Ask the Argentine government, they invited him,'' Barcia responded when asked by IPS why the president of an English-speaking country was invited.

Argentina's under-secretary of culture, Magdalena Faillace, said the list of writers and speakers who have been invited cannot yet be released. ''These congresses are already 'canned' when they reach us, because they follow a programme that has already been tested and tried in previous congresses,'' she said.

Faillace admitted that there were ''obstacles'' standing in the way of deciding on the content of the congress and the names of the panellists until ''the RAE and the Cervantes Institute reached a decision.''

''The congress is part of the Spanish state's policy, aimed at consolidating and strengthening the language throughout the entire Spanish-speaking community,'' she said.

Barcia, meanwhile, said the restrictions with respect to who is invited is the result of a ceiling on the number of participants.

There is only space for 150 participants, including writers, experts and speakers, and there are 22 countries with academies of letters that have a right to be represented at the congress, without surpassing the limit on the number of guests.

To compensate those who are unable to attend due to lack of space, the local academy will publish a 400-page volume containing papers and works by 37 Argentine experts and writers, shortly before the official congress begins. The theme of this year's congress will provide the book's title.

Barcia said the name of the writers who have been invited cannot yet be revealed because the Spanish organisers are awaiting confirmation of attendance. The fear is that at the last moment, a top-level writer will bow out, and will have to be replaced by someone who was not on the original guest list.

It is perhaps the organisers' decision not to release the names of the invited guests that most irritates academics, writers, artists, indigenous communities and social organisations in Argentina and other Latin American countries, as well as speakers of the Catalonian, Basque and Galician languages in northern Spain, who have also come out in support of the ''counter-conference''.

Those who agree with the arguments motivating the parallel conference, like Argentine writer Osvaldo Bayer, his Uruguayan colleague Eduardo Galeano, and Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, believe that ''linguistic and cultural pluralism, far from being an enemy to be fought, make it possible to share and build knowledge,'' according to the organisers.

Hachén criticised the ''closed manner'' in which the RAE organises the congresses of the Spanish language, and said the Congreso de LaS LenguaS is not moved by a spirit of ''opposing anyone'' but of ''advocating linguistic self-determination.''

He admitted, however, that ''an inevitable polemic'' with the RAE would arise.

Hachén said a number of universities and research centres in Argentina were not invited, just as ''they refused to invite Colombian Nobel Literature prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez'' due to ''ideological questions.''

When asked, Faillace merely confirmed that García Márquez was not on the guest list.

Hachén pointed out that García Márquez has been an outspoken critic of what he sees as Spain's intention of controlling the Spanish language.

Sábato, in the meantime, in his essay on 'The Castilian (Spanish) that We Speak' published in the book 'The Writer and His Phantoms', says languages ''are made by an entire people'', and states that ''the existence of the academies have the same social and psychological root as the police.''