Representatives of the five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean appeared ready to find a way Wednesday at a meeting in Greenland to resolve disputes over claims to the region's untapped rich resources.

"I am sure we will be able to identify ways ahead for future development in and around the Arctic Ocean which will be peaceful, secure and to the benefit of all our countries," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told AFP late Tuesday.

The summit is the first to be held at the ministerial level between the five countries.

It is aimed at easing recent tensions as they each seek to extend their sovereignty to the Arctic waters that could hold 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas, according to the US Geological Survey.

Russia, Norway and Denmark will be represented at the meeting in Ilulissat in western Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, by their foreign ministers Sergei Lavrov, Jonas Gahr Stoere and Per Stig Moeller respectively.

The United States will be represented by its deputy foreign policy chief John Negroponte, and Canada by its Minister of Natural Resources Gary Lunn.

The initiative for the summit was taken by Denmark and the head of the local Greenland government, Hans Enoksen.

"It is important to come together and talk about ... global warming and the increased possibilities of using the Arctic area for many different purposes," Negroponte told AFP on the eve of the gathering.

"Maybe there are some differences, but they are going to be worked out. The Arctic can be an area of cooperation," he added.

The meeting begins at 9:30 am (1130 GMT) and is expected to conclude with a press conference at 5:30 pm.

The rivalry between the five Arctic neighbours has heated up as the melting polar ice makes the region more accessible. Scientists say the Northwest Passage could open up to year-round shipping by 2050.

Denmark and Canada, for instance, have a longstanding disagreement over who owns the tiny, uninhabited, ice-covered Hans island, which straddles Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada's Ellesmere Island.

Canada and the United States are meanwhile at odds over the sovereignty of the Northwest Passage, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Last year, Russian explorers claimed to have planted their national flag at the bottom of the ocean, at a depth of more than 4,000 metres, after an expedition aimed at underlining Moscow's aspirations to Arctic territory.

According to international law, each of the countries bordering the Arctic hold sovereignty over a zone measuring 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres).

That leaves 1.2 million square kilometres of unclaimed territory in an area believed to hold vast petroleum riches.

The UN convention on the Law of the Sea gives countries that are signatories to the treaty the possibility of challenging claims of seabed sovereignty if they want to assert their claims beyond the 200-nautical-mile zone. They have 10 years to do so after ratifying the convention.

Russia in 2001 submitted a request to the United Nations to extend its maritime territory, and Norway has done the same for the Svalbard archipelago.

The United States is the only nation bordering the Arctic that has not ratified the convention, but on Tuesday Negroponte indicated that situation could soon change.

"We believe very strongly that the Convention on the Law of the Sea is very much in the interests of the United States," he said, adding however that the road towards ratification "takes time."