REUTERS - Scientists last month set foot on a tiny island off the coast of Greenland which they say is the world's northernmost point of land and was revealed by shifting pack ice.

The discovery comes as a battle is looming among Arctic nations the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway for control of the North Pole some 700 km (435 miles) to the north and of the surrounding seabed, fishing rights and shipping routes exposed by melting ice due to climate change.

The scientists initially thought they had arrived at Oodaaq, an island discovered by a Danish survey team in 1978. Only later, when checking the exact location, they realized they had visited another island 780 meters northwest.

"We had contact with the person who actually takes care for, on behalf of Denmark, on registering these islands in these areas … he was absolutely clear in saying you have not been on Oodaaq Island, you have been on a new island and it's actually situated approximately 800 meters more to the north than Oodaaq Island and that means that we actually what we came down at was actually the northernmost island on earth," polar explorer and head of the Arctic Station research facility in Greenland, Morten Rasch, told Reuters.

The small island, measuring roughly 30 meters across and a peak of about three meters, consists of seabed mud as well as moraine - soil and rock left behind by moving glaciers. The team said they would recommend it is named "Qeqertaq Avannarleq," which means "the northernmost island" in Greenlandic.

Several U.S. expeditions in the area have in recent decades searched for the world's northernmost island. In 2007, Arctic veteran Dennis Schmitt discovered a similar island close by.

Though it was exposed by shifting pack ice, the scientists said the island's appearance now was not a direct consequence of global warming, which has been shrinking Greenland's ice sheet.

The discovery was first reported earlier on Friday (August 27) by Danish newspaper Weekendavisen.

(Production: Ilze Filks)