Polar bears have been listed as threatened species by US

The US government has declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice.

However, it also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited dramatic declines in sea ice over the last three decades and projections of continued losses, meaning, he said, that the polar bear is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future.

But Mr Kempthorne said it would be "wholly inappropriate" to use the protection of the bear to reduce greenhouse gases, or to broadly address climate change".

The Endangered Species Act "is not the right tool to set US climate policy," said Mr Kempthorne, reflecting a view recently expressed by President George Bush.

The department outlined a set of administrative actions and limits to how it planned to protect the bear with its new status so that it would not have a wide-ranging adverse impact on economic activities from building power plants to oil and gas exploration.

"This listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting," said Mr Kempthorne. He said he had consulted the White House on the decision, but "at no time was there ever a suggestion that this was not my decision".

Mr Kempthorne, at a news conference, was armed with slides and charts showing the dramatic decline in sea ice over the last 30 years and projections that the melting of ice - a key habitat for the bear - would continue and may even quicken.

He cited conclusions by department scientists that sea ice loss will likely result in two-thirds of the polar bears disappearing by mid-century. The bear population across the Arctic from Alaska to Greenland doubled from about 12,000 to 25,000 since 1960, but he noted that scientists now predict a significant population decline.

Studies last year by the US Geological Survey suggested 15,000 bears would be lost in coming decades with those in the western Hudson Bay area of Alaska and Canada under the greatest stress.