Eight Arctic countries agreed on small steps to brake a rapid thaw of the region on Wednesday with indigenous peoples accusing Washington of blocking stronger action meant to slow global warming.

The United States, Russia, Canada and the five Nordic states, which all have territories in the Arctic, agreed to encourage "effective measures" to adapt to climate change. But they stopped short of promises or timetables.

Ministers noted "with concern" a report by 250 scientists this month warning that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average, threatening to wipe out species like polar bears by 2100 and undermining indigenous hunting cultures.

"We all need to intensify efforts against pollution in the Arctic," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the one-day meeting in Iceland.

Indigenous peoples, some nations and environmentalists had wanted the ministers to urge drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from cars and factories blamed for a warming that could melt the ice around the North Pole in summer by 2100.

"In terms of what the planet needs, this is far from enough," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (news - web sites), which says it represents 155,000 people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.

Still, she said that a seven-page policy document was more than she had expected from the consensus-based Arctic Council. Another delegate, who asked not to be named, quipped: "The only thing this declaration lacks is teeth."

Washington refused to sign up for caps in emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide favored by other states. The United States is the only one of the eight outside the 128-nation U.N. Kyoto protocol on curbing global warming.

"OSTRICH BURYING ITS HEAD IN THE SAND"

"The United States is like an ostrich burying its head in the sand," said chief Gary Harrison of the Arctic Athabaskan Council, which represents thousands of people in Canada and Alaska. He urged Washington to act to stop a melt.

But Paula Dobriansky, U.S. Under Secretary, Global Affairs, rebuffed the criticisms. "We base our policies on science and we will take the findings (of the report) into account," she said.

"We have a vibrant national program" to offset climate change, she told Reuters, noting U.S. spending of $5.8 billion on projects including renewable energies.

President Bush (news - web sites) pulled out of the Kyoto protocol in 2001, saying it was too costly and wrongly excluded developing nations. Kyoto seeks to cut rich nations' carbon dioxide emissions by five percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

Delegates, who have wrangled for months over policies with Washington opposed to strong new measures, laughed when Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja summed up by saying: "This is the best possible declaration -- that could be adopted today."

The Arctic warms fast because dark water and ground, once exposed, soaks up more heat than ice or snow. One result of the melt could be easier access to oil and gas, minerals and timber.

"It is alarming that some governments and many multinational enterprises seem to be most impressed by the fact that a warmer Arctic may become a more accessible Arctic," said Geir Tommy Pedersen, head of the Saami council based in north Norway.

Environmentalists said the eight countries, which together account for about 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, had squandered a chance to slow climate change.

"Arctic governments miss the chance to show leadership on climate change," the WWF environmental group said. It set up a meter (three feet) long ice sculpture of a polar bear outside the ministers' meeting room, dripping away into a tray in the heat.