Russia will toughen up environmental safeguards on oil and gas extraction, including offshore drilling, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Saturday.

The statement comes as clean-up procedures continue in the Gulf of Mexico following the worst oil slick in the history of the United States.

"Offshore extraction on the shelf poses a number of significant risks, so we will toughen environmental rules," Sechin said.

An explosion ripped through the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform, owned by BP, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the Louisiana coast, on April 20, causing a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The blast claimed the lives of 11 rig workers and injured another 17.

Repeated efforts to stop the oil gushing up from the seabed have met with failure and the spill poses a major threat to the Gulf of Mexico's flora and fauna.

SHARJAH, June 5 (RIA Novosti)