TROMSO, Norway, March 9 : Scottish researchers have suggested the warming of the polar ice cap could be a natural, cyclical event and not the fault of global warming.

"Cycles of 60 to 80 years have been identified before in atmospheric temperature records in the Arctic," Dr. Chad Dick at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso told The Scotsman."I've this gut feeling that within 10 years from now we'll know for certain whether we're losing sea ice long term or whether it's coming back."

However, Dick said the research did not suggest global warming was not a reality."You couldn't say, 'The sea ice is coming back so therefore there's no global warming'.It's never going to be that simple," he said.

Part of his research was scouring the logbooks of Arctic explorers spanning the past 300 years, which showed the 60 to 80-year cycle recorded.

In January, the international Climate Change Task Force warned global warming could reach a "point of no return" in 10 to 20 years by which time atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations would be so great, any attempt to reduce them would be futile.