Denmark plans to lay claim to the North Pole and other areas in the Arctic, where melting ice is uncovering new shipping routes, fishing grounds and drilling opportunities for oil and gas.

A leaked draft document titled "Strategy for the Arctic" also says Denmark's Science Ministry has started collecting data to formally submit a claim for those areas to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf no later than 2014.

The Danish government has confirmed the document, which was first obtained by Danish Radio and published online by newspaper Information, is genuine.

But Foreign Minister Lene Espersen said the strategy is still being reviewed and a final version is expected in June.

Russia, Norway and the US have their own claims - sometimes competing - in a region believed to hold as much as 25% of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

Denmark has for years explored potential claims to areas off Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory, but this is the first time the government explicitly states it will make a claim for the North Pole.

The race to secure sub-surface rights to the Arctic seabed heated up in 2007 when Russia sent two small submarines to plant a tiny national flag under the North Pole. Russia argued that an underwater ridge connected the country directly to the Pole, a claim disputed by other Arctic nations.

The 34-page Danish document said Denmark wants "to lay claim to the continental shelf in five areas around the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, including the North Pole itself." At least four of those areas are believed to hold oil or gas resources.

Exploiting such resources becomes easier as Arctic sea ice coverage shrinks. It has reached record lows in the past decade.

The document also said Denmark's military will strengthen its focus on the Arctic but stressed that the Scandinavian nation will work for peaceful cooperation between Arctic states.

Last week the eight members of the Arctic Council - Russia, United States, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland - agreed to co-ordinate Arctic search-and-rescue missions.

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