Britain wants to carve out a larger slice of remote seabed off the Antarctic and is considering a bid for more than a million square kilometres of the territory, its Foreign Office confirmed Wednesday.

The government said it has already prepared information for submission to the United Nations. Countries are required to finalize their submissions to the UN by May 13, 2009. A commission on the limits of the continental shelf would then consider the proposals and draw up outer limits of each country's seabed rights under a 1982 convention. 

The claim for British sovereignty in Antarctica would give the country greater access to oil and gas reserves in the region, but it would be in defiance of the Antarctic Treaty. In 1959, Britain was among the 12 signatories of the treaty, agreeing not to tap Antarctica's energy resources for commercial purposes.

Britain's expansionist claim is a pre-emptive move to protect its economic self-interests, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office told the Reuters news agency.

"It's incredibly unlikely that the Antarctic Treaty would ever be abolished," said the spokeswoman, whose name was not disclosed in the Reuters report. "But in order to safeguard our interests for the future, we are submitting a claim."

Challenge from South American states

News of the British plan is expected to outrage conservationists and environmental groups.

Britain is also almost certain to be challenged by South American countries such as Chile and Argentina, which are seeking energy sources in overlapping areas.

Britain's submission would be for more than a million square kilometres of seabed stretching about 560 kilometres into the ocean, including swaths of territory around the Falkland Islands and the island of South Georgia.

By comparison, that would be about one-tenth of the total area of Canada, which amounts to 9,984,670 square kilometres, according to Natural Resources Canada.

Britain would also be making a joint claim with France, Ireland and Spain for an area around the Bay of Biscay, an inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean that is bordered by France's west coast and the north coast of Spain.

Race for Arctic territory

A statement from the British Foreign Office said the government was "hoping to put forward" a total of five claims.

Energy-hungry countries have also been rushing to stake rights over Arctic territory. Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway and Denmark all have claims in the Arctic, hoping to take advantage of new possibilities for extracting oil and natural gas due to the thawing of the polar ice caps from global warming.

A quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves can be found in the Arctic, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Russia made a symbolic expedition in August, planting a Russian flag under the North Pole. In the same month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans to set up military training bases in the Arctic.