Putin sends a sub to lay claim to part of the Arctic

The mission is part of a race to assert rights over the area, which is rich in energy reserves.

As climate change melts the ice, it could also open up to form a lucrative shortcut for ships sailing between Asia and North America.

"The Arctic is Russian," expedition leader and parliamentary deputy Artur Chilingarov insisted last night as he set sail from Murmansk.

"We are going to be the first to put a flag there, a Russian flag at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, at the very point of the North Pole."

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A nuclear-powered icebreaker will smash through the weakened Arctic ice, leading the way for the main expedition ship which is expected to launch the mini-submarine on Sunday.

International law states the five countries with territory inside the Arctic Circle - Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark via its control of Greenland - are limited to a 200 mile economic zone around their coastline.

But since 2001, Russia has claimed a larger slice extending as far as the North Pole because, Moscow says, the Arctic seabed and Siberia are linked via the same continental shelf.

Last month a Russian newspaper printed a map of the area the Kremlin is claiming - a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

Observers say the move is typical of Russian President Vladimir Putin's muscle-flexing as he tries to increase his country's power. Critics accuse the Kremlin leader of increasingly using Russia's huge energy resources as an economic and political weapon.

Episodes such as the decision to cut off the Ukraine in a pricing dispute 18 months ago sparked fears that the Kremlin is using its energy giant Gazprom and its growing pipeline network to create an energy stranglehold over western powers.

One British diplomat said: "Putin wants a strong Russia, and Western dependence on it for oil and gas supplies is a key part of his strategy. He no longer cares if it upsets the West."

But the expedition has provoked an international outcry.

The U.S. state department said the Russian claim was completely unacceptable. "It's an extraordinary idea and I can't believe it will go anywhere," an official said.

The three-man team say they plan to carry out scientific research while under the ice. The sea is around 15,000ft deep at the North Pole.

But national pride is the driving force behind the expedition, according to the submarine's designer Anatoly Sagalevich.

The first submarine to travel under the North Pole was the USS Nautilus in 1958 but it did not stop on the sea floor. "I think we will be the first submariners to travel along the ocean floor under the North Pole, we will raise Russia's prestige," said Mr Sagalevich.

"People have flown to the moon but nobody has yet been to the crown of the Earth."

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• Vladimir Putin yesterday denounced Britain's demands for the extradition of a suspect in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko as insulting.

Russia has refused to extradite suspect Andrei Lugovoy to stand trial in London for the murder of Mr Litvinenko, citing its constitution which forbids the extradition of Russian citizens.

"What they propose is an obvious vestige of colonial thinking," Mr Putin said on Russian state television.

"They must have clearly forgotten that Britain is no longer a colonial power, there are no colonies left and, thank God, Russia has never been a British colony."