MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. US plans to extend their continental shelf in the Arctic overlap with Canadian and Japanese ambitions, and Russia "will stand up to defend its interests" if they ever overlap with US ones further down the road, a senior Russian senator warned.

"Whenever [US interests] overlap with Russian ones, Russia will undoubtedly stand up to defend these interests and it will prevent any discrimination of these interests in the Arctic," Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament, or "senate") Vice Speaker Konstantin Kosachev said at a news conference.

Judging from the latest data available, US interests in the Arctic do not overlap with Russian ones as the size of the US continental shelf grows, Kosachev said. "There is an overlap with Canadian and Japanese [ambitions]," he added.

"We are making efforts to keep the situation in the Arctic in these conflict-free dimensions. Hence, among other things, we cooperate consistently with the UN Commission on [the Limits of] the Continental Shelf," the Russian politician emphasized.

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that the US had unilaterally extended its claims on the ocean floor in the Arctic and Bering Sea. The so-called Extended Continental Shelf covers an area of about 1 mln square kilometers, Bloomberg specified.