The U.S. President George Bush will this week seek formal comment from his Cabinet agencies on a plan that could make three remote and pristine island chains off limits to commercial fishing and mineral exploration.
The proposal would conserve parts of the Northern Mariana islands, the Line Islands in the central Pacific and American Samoa.
The conservation plan, which could be completed before President Bush leaves office, would rank as one of the largest marine conservation efforts in history.
Environmentalists who took part in a briefing told the Associated Press that the plan would make the areas off limits to fishing and energy development is the most stringent of the possible measures outlined.
