'Today the Interior Department's US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act,' said interior secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

'We are making this proposal because a scientific review of the species by the Fish and Wildlife service found that populations may be threatened by receding sea ice, which polar bears use as a platform for many activities essential to their life cycle, including hunting for their main prey, Arctic seals.'

Today's announcement follows a campaign by environmental groups, which sued the Government seeking action to protect the polar bear.