Nations around the world, primarily those in Europe, have been patiently "courting" officials of the home rule government of Greenland for potential access into the latter's natural resources after latest satellite data showed that almost 100 per cent of Greenland's ice sheet surface experience melting over a stretch of four days in July, a report said.

This could potentially mean that Greenland's natural resources, including rare earths and gemstones, but trapped under 150 metres of ice, will become more accessible for extraction in the coming decades, the online news portal www.guardian.co.uk said.

Antonio Tajani, vice-president of the European Commission, has been conducting talks with the Greenland government and was able to enter into an agreement for a potential joint development cooperation over some of the deposits, which aside from rare earths, will also include gold and iron. Oil and gas could also be included since they have been found to be also abundant in the waters around the island.

"We need innovative partnerships with other countries over raw materials. Companies are pushing the commission for this - they need this to survive. Europe is not so wealthy in raw materials and needs to do better (at forming partnerships with other countries," Mr Tajani said.

"Greenland is hugely important in terms of natural resources, it has vast opportunities. We are currently working very hard with the prime minister of Greenland on this - we are working on our own agreement with Greenland on raw materials."

It is believed that Greenland holds a massive mineral wealth.

According to the report, Greenland has so far only one productive mine, a gold mine. However, there are five more in the advanced stages of building new mines, with more than 120 sites being explored.