Argentina replaces environmental secretary

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's environmental secretary, who unsuccessfully pushed a law to force miners to protect glaciers in the Andes, has been replaced, government officials said late on Tuesday.

Homero Bibiloni, a lawyer who was deputy secretary for the environment in a previous administration, will replace outgoing Secretary Romina Picolotti, a lawyer and environmental activist.

Picolotti had promoted a glacier protection law, which was passed by Congress but then vetoed by President Cristina Fernandez, that might have complicated plans by the world's biggest gold miner, Barrick Gold Corp, to build a $2.4 billion mine in the Andes.

Picolotti was under investigation for alleged abuse of funds, but local newspapers reported on Wednesday that Fernandez asked for her resignation because she had failed to advance with plans to clean up heavily polluted waterways in the capital.

Before she was named environmental secretary, Picolotti was well known for her opposition to a large pulp mill owned by Finland's Metsa-Botnia group that was built in Uruguay, at the edge of a river that runs between that country and Argentina.

The Argentine government unsuccessfully tried to block construction of the plant.

(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)