Washington has criticized Canada for failing to invite Scandinavian countries and indigenous groups to talks on the future of the Arctic, a region harboring vast natural resources.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon invited his counterparts from the United States, Russia, Norway and Denmark to the meeting Monday of Arctic coastal states in Ottawa.

Groups representing the Inuit people as well as Sweden, Finland and Iceland -- the remaining members of the so-called Arctic Council, which discusses the future of the region -- reacted angrily that they were left out.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a rare public rebuke, said Canada should have invited all those groups with "legitimate interests in the region," which is transformed by climate change.

"What happens in the Arctic will have broad consequences for the Earth and its climate," Clinton was quoted as saying at the conference by BBC News. "We need all hands on deck because there is a huge amount to do and not much time to do it."

Cannon in a news conference tried to defuse tensions, saying that the Ottawa meeting wasn't convened "to replace or undermine the Arctic Council."

He added the five coastal states had no intentions to form a permanent institution. Rather, Cannon said, the states at the meeting discussed overlapping claims to parts of Arctic territory -- boundary disputes that have been going on for decades.

Yet Beth Hunter, a Greenpeace oceans expert, said she thinks there is a hidden agenda to the exclusive club, accusing it of "focusing on carving up the petroleum pie rather than ensuring a sustainable future for the Arctic."

Climate change is causing the Arctic ice sheets to melt, with the oceans in the region possibly ice-free during the summer months. This is opening a new Atlantic-Pacific shipping channel and makes the vast oil and gas resources lying under the seabed more accessible.

Nations have in the past years laid conflicting claims to the seabeds, with Russia and Norway rowing over a boundary in the Barents Sea, and the United States and Canada disagreeing over a swath of the Beaufort Sea and the Northwest Passage, which in 2007 for the first time in modern history was free of ice.

Russia sparked concern when one of its submarines planted a flag in the seabed in territory it considers its own at the North Pole in 2007.

The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, a treaty ratified by all Arctic Council members except the United States, states that Arctic border countries can claim ownership of natural resources up to 200 nautical miles off their coasts. Arctic nations are exploring to where their continental shelves extend -- findings that could increase their territories.

Meanwhile, environmental groups are worried that the Arctic, one of the world's most pristine natural ecosystems, may be destroyed by reckless industrial activity.

"The future of the Arctic is vital to us all, from the Inuit and other peoples who inhabit it to the low-lying nations and island nations that will suffer from sea level rises caused by climate change," Hunter said. "The Arctic Club nations need to consider the long-term impacts of their decisions, not just short-term profits from exploitation."

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Arctic coast nations agree to boost cooperation
Arctic coastal states on Monday agreed to work more closely to map the Arctic seabed, regulate polar shipping, respond to accidents and safeguard the region's fragile environment.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told a press conference the delegates from five nations had agreed on the need for "deepening cooperation" in the Arctic.

"We are not reacting to change but shaping it," Cannon said.

In the light of the prospect of increased shipping in the region, Canada, the United States, Russia, Denmark and Norway also placed a "high priority" on the adoption of a "mandatory regime for shipping in polar waters," he said.

Cannon said coastal states reiterated their commitment to ensuring "an orderly resolution of any possible overlapping claims."

At present, Canada and the United States are negotiating territorial disputes in the Beaufort Sea, while Russia and Norway hash out claims in the Barents Sea. Both areas are rich in hydrocarbons.

Cannon hosted his counterparts from the United States, Russia, Denmark and Norway for the half-day summit to address the race to mine the area's rich resources.

As the Arctic sea ice melts away, companies are lining up to drill for oil and gas, and ship builders are readying fleets to navigate a shorter northern route connecting Asia and Europe.

But Cannon said the five coastal nations were committed to implementing Arctic offshore oil and gas guidelines previously released by the Arctic Council, "to protect the Arctic marine environment."

He also addressed concerns from other countries and indigenous peoples who were not invited to the meeting saying Monday's talks had reaffirmed the Arctic Council as the main forum for discussions on the region.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier suggested that indigenous peoples, as well as Iceland, Sweden and Finland, "who have legitimate interests in the region" should have been invited to the conference.

"We need all hands on deck because there is a huge amount to do, and not much time to do it," the top US diplomat warned.

"What happens in the Arctic will have broad consequences for the earth and its climate. The melting of sea ice, glaciers, and permafrost will affect people and ecosystems around the world," she said.

Some critics had expressed concerns that the five Arctic coastal states were forming an "inner core" outside the main intergovernmental group of Arctic states and Inuit groups that meet biannually.

"This meeting was not made to replace or undermine the Arctic Council," Cannon told reporters.

But the five nations have "certain responsibilities," such as search and rescue, that are outside of this framework which needed to be addressed, he explained.

Cannon said delegates agreed on the need for search and rescue protocols to be adopted by the 2011 Arctic Council ministerial meeting.

Michael Byers, author of Who Owns the Arctic, said coastal nations desperately needed to reach a "multilateral agreement on search and rescue."

"We're seeing hundreds of cruise ships in the Arctic every summer. We have thousands of transpolar commercial passenger flights," said Byers, a politics professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

"We are going to have at some point certain accidents and hundreds of people will die unless we are prepared, not just with equipment and personnel but with cooperation protocols."

The ministers also called for more scientific research on fish stocks and their ecosystems, arguing they have "a unique interest and role to play in the current and future efforts for the conservation and management of fish stocks in this region."

And the five Arctic coast states proposed creating an Arctic Regional Hydrographic Commission to coordinate mapping the Arctic seabed for safer navigation.

Observers had urged participants to focus on the damage from climate change, and the so-called greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Dozens of protesters from Greenpeace and the Council of Canadians, a political activist group, denounced the scramble for offshore drilling, saying Arctic mineral resources should remain untouched.