Northern pebbles new pawns in Arctic chess game

By Astrid Wendlandt

PARIS (Reuters) - A tiny speck of pebbles found off the northern coast of Greenland could open up a new front in the looming battle for control of the Arctic and the North Pole.

The best candidate to date for the world's northernmost point of land -- a mythical place sought by explorers for centuries -- was spotted in July during an expedition led by Arctic veteran Dennis Schmitt.

California-based Schmitt, best-known for his 2005 discovery of Warming Island off the eastern coast of Greenland, named it Stray Dog West because, he said, it "erred under the ice".

It was exposed mainly by shifting pack ice.

As Greenland is under Denmark's administration, this scrap of land just 40 meters long could extend Danish territory further north and strengthen Copenhagen's claim on the pole.

Its discovery comes as countries around the Arctic Ocean -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Iceland -- are rushing to stake out the Polar Basin's seabed, fishing rights and maritime routes.

"This little island could have a wide international significance," said Stefan Talmon, professor of international law at Oxford University in Britain. "With the ice melting, more and more of these islands could emerge and play a role in maritime delimitations," he said.

Denmark sent an icebreaker to the Arctic this summer to collect geological data in preparation for its claim to extend its shelf beyond the established 200 nautical miles from Greenland's baseline.

If a country can show the seabed is a natural extension of its land territory, it gets the exclusive right to exploit the resources contained in its subsoil.

As temperatures are rising faster in the Arctic than elsewhere and the ice sheet is retreating -- it has shrunk by more than a quarter in the past 30 years -- previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves could be within reach in decades.

"Five potential claim areas have been identified off the Faroe Islands and Greenland, potentially including the North Pole," Denmark's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation says on its website www.a76.dk.

POLAR BATTLE

Russia sought to stamp its authority on the pole this summer by planting its flag on the seabed beneath it, in a theatrical move that prompted irate responses from Ottawa and Washington.

Russia argues a ridge under the Arctic Ocean makes the pole Russian, even though the coast of Siberia is 2,000 km (1,200 miles) away.

Canada said earlier this month it would map its entire Arctic seabed. It is planning to build a deep-water port for patrol vessels near the eastern entrance of the fabled Northwest Passage, which was ice-free for the first time this summer.