KEY POINTS:
The United Nations has confirmed New Zealand's rights over seabed outside the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The 1.7 million sq km area is six times the size of New Zealand's land area.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf had confirmed New Zealand's rights to the outer edge of the shelf.
"This success enables New Zealand to exercise its rights to the continental shelf with certainty, including its rights in the future, if it chooses to pursue them, to resources such as minerals and petroleum."
It took two years to get the result and cost $44 million which covered costs such as a survey to establish the shelf boundary.
"New Zealand will now set its continental shelf boundary based on the commission's recommendations."
It would be binding on other countries.
A boundary is to be negotiated with Fiji and Tonga over the continental shelf north of New Zealand, because their shelf overlaps New Zealand's. A boundary was agreed with Australia in 2004.
New Zealand was entitled to the undersea resources of the continental shelf, but the waters above it were international and New Zealand had no special fisheries rights.
- NZPA
