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A top US Coast Guard official has told the Congress that Russia is getting ahead of the United States in the Arctic race. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen has said the government must urgently revise its approach to polar exploration. Admiral Allen told a Congress committee that he was concerned about the decline in the nation's ice-breaking capabilities. The Coast Guard chief said Russia had finally put to sea last year the largest icebreaker in its polar fleet, guaranteeing Russia easy access to the vast natural resources in the Arctic region. Allen said Russia is the only other country, besides the US, with polar ice breaking capabilities, but the Russian fleet is in far better shape, with 'seven to eight' nuclear-powered polar icebreakers.
Russia has undertaken two Arctic expeditions - to the Mendeleyev underwater chain in 2005 and to the Lomonosov ridge last summer to back Russian claims to the region. The area is believed to contain vast oil and gas reserves and other mineral riches, likely to become accessible in future decades due to man-made global warming. Russia said it would submit documentary evidence to the UN of the external boundaries along Russia's territorial shelf in 2009.
Under international law, the five Arctic Circle countries, the US, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia, currently have a 322-km economic zone each in the Arctic Ocean.
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