The Argentine government has decided to take over management of a power company for 180 days, following massive and prolonged blackouts in the Buenos Aires area.

Economy Minister Sergio Massa announced that the state will take over the operations of EDESUR, which distributes power in part of the capital's metropolitan area.

In justifying the measure, Massa said: "situations like the ones thousands of Argentines have had to live through in the last 15 days can no longer be tolerated".

The Minister also stated that "this intervention will have the task of supervising, controlling and monitoring the execution of the service works".

In any case, he clarified that this action "does not affect the ownership of the shareholders or the concession contract", ruling out full nationalization for the moment.

During the heat wave that hit Argentina for almost three weeks, tens of thousands of households were left without electricity for days.