Canada is to lay claim to the North Pole as part of a bid to assert control over a large part of the resource-rich Arctic.

Foreign Minister John Baird said the paperwork had gone in to UN commission which is currently collecting competing claims.

Denmark and Russia won’t be pleased as the region lies on a continental shelf they control.

Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States are all keen to control as much as they can of the Arctic as it is thought to contain 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and five percent of oil.