Moscow  - Russian scientists have been evacuated from an Arctic ice floe after their base melted faster than expected, a spokesman said Monday.

Camp North Pole 35, set up on the ice floe in September, dwindled to just 600 meters from its original six kilometers when the 21 researchers and two dogs were rescued, said Sergei Balyasnikov of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St Petersburg.

Balyasnikov blamed global warming, saying researchers had planned to stay at the camp until late August.

A nuclear-powered icebreaker forged a path for the research vessel carrying the scientists, who are due back in the Russia's Arctic port of Murmansk. (dpa)