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Moscow: Russia will file a claim to the gigantic mineral wealth of the Arctic seabed with the United Nations by the end of the year, Russia's natural resources minister was quoted as saying yesterday.

Russia, the world's biggest country, says a whole swathe of the Arctic seabed should belong to Moscow because the area is really an extension of the Siberian continental shelf.

The Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei quoted Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev as telling it in an interview that Russia would submit its claim with the United Nations this year.

"We can hardly start the economic exploitation of this territory, which is beyond Russia's borders, without the agreement of other countries, without the agreement of the UN," the station quoted Trutnev as saying.

"The scientists think that the data for submitting a claim is sufficient. We will fight for Russia's right to this plot."

Moscow's bid is part of a race with Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States to control the giant reserves of oil, gas and precious metals that would become more accessible if global warming shrinks the ice cap.

Russian officials say the Lomonosov ridge, a vast underwater mountain range that runs underneath the Arctic, is an extension of the Siberian continental shelf.

A Russian expedition to the depths under the North Pole this August took samples of the seabed and planted a Russian flag to symbolically stake the Kremlin's claim.

Source - Gulf News