Russia staked a claim to untapped oil and gas reserves in the North Pole Thursday as polar researchers in submersibles planted a rust-resistant titanium Russian tricolor on the sea floor.

Two Mir submersibles manned with Russian scientists dived to a depth of 4,261 metres and planted the symbolic flag 30 years after the first nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika made it to the North Pole.

"The Arctic belongs to us," expedition leader Artur Chilingarov said.

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the goal of the expedition is to collect evidence that the underwater range of mountains on the North Pole is connected to mainland Russia.

The Russian minister added that the question of ownership has to be re-established on the basis of international law.

According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the polar states have rights to territory toward the North Pole 320 kilometres from their respective mainlands.

Russia hopes to add to its territory an additional 1.2 million square kilometres, an area roughly twice the size of France.

The United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway also have claims to the territory.

As global warming leads to the melting of the polar ice caps and exploration technology improves, the possibility of exploiting the possible oil and gas reserves under the Arctic has become more realistic.

Russia's polar mission has reached fever pitch in recent days as the nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya, research ship Akademik Fyodorov, two submersibles and helicopters with some 100 team members converged on the North Pole for the dive.

The explorers also left behind on the sea floor a capsule with a message from Russia for future generations and a flag from the Kremlin's United Russia party, Chilingarov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally appointed Chilingarov, head of the Association of Polar Explorers of the Russian Federation and a lawmaker in the Duma, or parliament, to head the expedition.

Russia has been increasing its expenditure on polar exploration year on year, Chilingarov said.

With the polar mission that is due to continue until October 5, the Kremlin is emphasizing its political direction ahead of presidential elections in the winter.

Russia has claimed the waters between the Kola Peninsula and the Bering Strait as its territory since Stalin's times.

The modern Mir nickel-steel-alloy submersibles on Thursday effortlessly broke their previous record dive of 2 kilometres.

Canada and Denmark have also laid claims to the 1,800km-long and 3,700km-high undersea Lomonosov mountain range and have announced surveys to back up their claims.

The range actually lies closer to Danish-administered Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island that to the Russian mainland.

It is estimated that there are 10 billion tons of oil and gas in the polar region worth more than 1 trillion dollars, Izvestiya newspaper reported. There are also believed to be large reserves of gold and diamonds.

Russia hopes to secure its claim to the Lomonosov range at the United Nations by 2009.

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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