MOSCOW, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - Russia must formally set its borders in the oil-rich Arctic region in the near future, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday amid an international race for the region's reserves.

'We must wrap up all the formalities for drawing the external border in the continental shelf. This is our direct responsibility to future generations,' Medvedev said at a Kremlin meeting of his national security council.

'The Arctic region has a strategic importance,' he said.

Russian scientists last year planted a flag on the ocean floor beneath the North Pole in a symbolic bid to stake a claim over the region.

Moscow says its continental shelf extends along the Lomonosov Ridge, a mountain chain running underneath the Arctic. That claim has been rejected by fellow Arctic states Canada, the United States, Denmark and Norway.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) stipulates that any coastal state can claim territory 200 nautical miles from their shoreline and exploit the natural resources within that zone.

Nations can also provide scientific proof of the natural extension of the continental plate to establish a claim beyond that distance.

The US Geological Survey believes that the Arctic region contains 90 billion untapped barrels of oil.