Greenland votes Tuesday in a referendum on wider self-rule that would give it rights to an anticipated Arctic energy windfall and could pave the way for full independence from Denmark.
   
Opinion polls have suggested that a large majority of Greenland's 39,000 electorate plans to vote in favour of greater autonomy. The territory was granted semi-autonomy from Denmark in 1979, and withdrew from the European Union in a 1982 referendum.
   
Polling stations open at 9:00 am (1200 GMT) and close at 8:00 pm (2300 GMT). The result is expected around midnight (0300 GMT Wednesday).
   
If the "yes" side wins, the local Greenland government has the chance to take control of new areas such as natural resource management, justice and police affairs and to a certain extent, foreign affairs.
   
There are potentially lucrative revenues from natural resources under Greenland's seabed and icecap, which according to international experts is home to large oil and gas deposits.
   
Melting ice in the Arctic owing to climate change could make the region more accessible to exploration in the future.
   
The countries that ring the Arctic Ocean -- Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States -- are currently competing over territorial claims in the region and Greenland is keen to garner its share.
   
A Danish-Greenlandic commission that studied which policy fields would be transferred to the local government in Nuuk in the event of wider self-rule, and whose conclusions form the basis for the referendum, has proposed among other things that "the revenues from activities related to raw materials be distributed to Greenland."
   
In return, Greenland's annual subsidies from Copenhagen would be reduced by half the amount of any revenues that exceed 75 million kroner (13 million dollars, 10 million euros) per year.
   
According to a poll published on the eve of the plebiscite, 61 percent of voters said they would vote "yes" to greater self-rule and 15 percent said they would vote "no."
   
A total of 19 percent said they were undecided and five percent did not plan to vote at all.
   
The referendum is officially non-binding, but the local government has vowed to respect the outcome even if it goes against greater autonomy.
   
If the self-rule supporters win, the new status would take effect on June 21, 2009.
   
Local government chief Hans Enoksen stressed in a radio interview in the final days of the campaign that the referendum "is not about independence."
   
"Agreeing on self-rule is the only road forward," he said, adding however that he hoped for full independence in the not too distant future.
   
Like most of the parties in the local parliament, as well as the Greenlandic media, the Social Democratic prime minister has called on voters to "take advantage of this opportunity."
   
While polls suggest most Greenlanders will heed his call, a fringe movement, backed by a single political party, the Democrats, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the proposal.
   
"Greenland will never be an independent state," Finn Lynge recently stated, much to the dismay of his Siumut party, which is a leading member of the government coalition and strongly in favour of a "yes" vote in the referendum.
   
"There are only between 50,000 and 60,000 of us living here in geographically and climatically extreme conditions. With such a tiny population it is impossible to provide the human contributions needed to turn Greenland into a modern and independent state," he said.
   
With its 2.1-million square kilometre (840,000 square mile) surface, 80 percent of which is covered by ice, Greenland is the world's largest island. It counts 57,000 inhabitants, 50,000 of whom are native Inuits.
   
In 2007, the territory received subsidies of 3.2 billion kroner (432 million euros, 540 million dollars) from Denmark, or about 30 percent of its gross domestic product.
   
Denmark remains an EU member.