Scientist says tests back Russia Arctic claim

By Conor Sweeney

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian scientist said on Thursday that fresh test results back his country's legal bid to take control of the Arctic, just weeks after a submarine planted the Russian national flag on the North Pole's seabed.

The race to claim ownership of the Arctic, home to vast untapped gas and oil reserves, has intensified with Canada, Denmark, Norway and the U.S. all vying with Russia to build their political and legal case to claim jurisdiction.

Valery Kaminsky, the director of the Russian Maritime Geological Research Institute, said new research demonstrated that the undersea Lomonosov mountain chain links Siberia to the Arctic.

That contention -- disputed by other countries' scientists -- is the key to Russia's claim for ownership of the Arctic.

"The way the geological strata are layered confirms the Lomonosov Ridge is of the same nature as the continental shelf," Kaminsky said in an interview on Vesti-24 television station.

"We have a continuous interface of the ridge with the geographical shelf," he said.

He said researchers used aircraft to survey 600 km (373 miles) of the underwater ridge at 35 separate points. The next phase of the research then involved taking physical samples from the sea bed using submersibles.

He did not say when the fieldwork was conducted.