About 300 experts, including representatives from 45 governmemts are attending the meeting, the 28th conference on the Antarctica treaty, which opened on June 6 and is due to end Friday.

According to chairman Hans Corell, a former senior United Nations official, a treaty charting a "strategy for the future" had "been very well received", something he described as a "very positive development".

Corell, a Swedish national, said progress had been made in working out a protocol on responsibilities and insurance in the event of a serious accident such as an oil spill.

A text should be adopted by the end of the week ending years of discussions, he said.

This week delegates will consider the impact of tourism on the continent. According to Corell each year between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors go to Antarctica, where 90 percent of the planet's ice is to be found. It covers 14 million square kilometres (5.4 million square miles).

Experts have warned recently that climate change is having an effect, with 200 glaciers along the coasts in the process of melting.

A 1959 treaty signed by 12 states recognised that region's role in the global climate and laid down that it was in the interest of mankind that the continent continue to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and should not become the theatre or object of international conflict.

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