Court upholds federal plan to protect vast polar bear habitat in Alaska

• Appeals court rules designation of area larger than California not arbitrary
• Alaska senator 'enraged' by move likely to forestall potential oil drilling

A federal government plan to protect a vast area of the US Arctic as habitat for polar bears has been upheld by an appeals court, overturning a previous victory by the state of Alaska and fossil fuel lobbyists against the designation.

The US court of appeals for the ninth circuit reversed a lower-court decision that the US Fish and Wildlife Service's protection of 187,000 square miles of Alaska's northern coast - an area larger than California - was too extensive and arbitrary.