Canada intends to claim the North Pole and surrounding Arctic waters as part of a bid to assert control over a large part of the resource-rich area, Reuters reported.

Foreign Minister John Baird told reporters on Monday that Canada had filed a preliminary submission to the United Nations commission seeking to vastly expand its Atlantic sea boundary. He said Canada is "collecting competing claims and would be submitting more data later."

Reuters reported the move could increase tension with both Denmark and Russia, both of which also look set to lay claim to the North Pole on the grounds it lays on a continental shelf they control.

"We have asked our officials and scientists to do additional and necessary work to ensure that a submission for the full extent of the continental shelf in the Arctic includes Canada's claim to the North Pole," Baird told reporters.

Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States are eager to control as much as they can of a region. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the region is said to contain 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 15 percent of oil, according to Reuters.

About six years ago, a Russian submarine planted a flag on the North Pole sea bed.

Interest in the polar region has risen as rising temperatures open up "shipping routes and make hitherto inaccessible mineral resources easier to exploit," Yahoo News reported.

"Obtaining international recognition for the outer limits of our continental shelf ... will be vital to the future development of Canada's offshore resources," Baird said."Canada is going to fight to assert its sovereignty in the north but I think we will be good neighbors in doing so."

Reuters reported that Russia, Canada and Denmark claim an underwater mountain range known as the Lomonosov Ridge, which stretches 1,800 km (1,120 miles) across the pole under the Arctic Sea, is part of their own landmass.

Baird claims because Canada did not have time to fully map the area around the ridge, it needs more time to file a final submission to the U.N.