Russia says won't stand still in race for Arctic

Russia will not allow itself to be left behind in the race to exploit the resources of the Arctic now being opened up by global warming, the Kremlin's special representative for the region said in an interview.

Scientists say the ice is receding so fast that drilling for oil and gas high in the Arctic will soon become routine and cargo ships could sail between the Atlantic and Pacific along a new shipping lane much shorter than the routes used now.

Those lucrative prospects have unleashed fierce competition between nations with Arctic coastlines - led by the US and Russia - to assert their influence.

"Russia's national interest lies there," said Artur Chilingarov, who was last year appointed presidential envoy for international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic.

He symbolically staked the Kremlin's claim to a bigger share of the Arctic two years ago by diving to the seabed in a submersible and planting a Russian flag.

"We have worked in the Arctic and we are working there now. There is of course (competition)...But we are not going to stand still," he told Reuters last week.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year said he was worried Russia might act outside international law in pressing its claims in the Arctic, a region estimated to hold enough oil to meet world supply for three years.

Mr Chilingarov said Russia would respect international treaties and wanted to cooperate with other countries, but it had a special claim to parts of the Arctic adjacent to its borders.

"Look at the map. Who is there nearby? All our northern regions are in or come out into the Arctic," he said. "All that is in our northern, Arctic regions. It is our Russia."