MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - The secretary of the Russian Security Council said the Arctic is strategically important to Russia and the country must protect its interests in the region.

In an interview published on the Izvestia newspaper web site Wednesday, Nikolai Patrushev said President Dmitry Medvedev had approved the principles of state policy in the Arctic until 2020.

"The priority line for us is using the Arctic zone to resolve strategic tasks of the country's development," Patrushev said.

He said fixing the external border of the Arctic shelf in terms of international law was on the short-term agenda, and added that a federal law on the southern border of Russia's arctic zone should be adopted.

The official said one of the main tasks was to turn the Arctic into Russia's resource base of the 21st century.

The area is believed to contain vast oil and gas reserves and other mineral riches, which technical advances and global warming could make more accessible in future decades.

"All these resources must be used to solve the problem of global energy security in the future," Patrushev said, adding that the interests of indigenous northern peoples and environmental standards and regulations must be taken into account.

Russia has undertaken two Arctic expeditions - to the Mendeleyev underwater chain in 2005 and to the Lomonosov ridge last summer - to support Russian claims to the region.

Russia said earlier it would submit documentary evidence to the UN on the external boundaries of the Russian Federation's territorial shelf in 2009.

Under international law, the five Arctic Circle countries - the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia - each currently have a 322-km (200-mile) economic zone in the Arctic Ocean.