Sochi Olympic flame arrives at North Pole

MOSCOW - The Olympic flame for the Sochi Winter Olympic Games has arrived at the North Pole, the steering committee head Dmitry Chernyshenko said Sunday.

"Record is set! First time ever the Olympic Flame reached the North Pole!" Chernyshenko wrote on Twitter, posting a picture of the flame in a delicately designed container.

"In spite of everything the flame burned excellently," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying, adding the temperature was rather warm, "just -15 (degrees)."

The flame was drifted to the North Pole on a nuclear-powered icebreaker that left the Russian port of Murmansk on Tuesday.

Upon its departure, Murmansk regional governor Marina Kovtun said the torch relay in the arctic area marked not only a new age of Olympic sports, but deliver a Russian message of openness and cooperation.

The Olympic flame will travel more than 65,000 km across Russia's 83 regions spanning 132 cities. It will also dive into the Baikal as well as fly to the space before settling down in Sochi at the opening ceremony of the Games on February 7.