The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported Monday that it would not meet the Wednesday deadline for announcing a decision on listing the polar bear as a threatened species because of global warming.

The agency has to consider whether the bear should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

New research has delayed the sending of the agency’s recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, said the Fish and Wildfire Service representative Valerie Fellows.

"We expect to provide a final recommendation to the secretary of the interior and finalize the decision within the next month," she said in a statement.

Therefore, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace, which had asked the administration more than two years ago to protect the polar bear from the consequences of the global warning, have announced they are going to file a suit Wednesday to speed up the process.

"The Bush administration has failed to do what is necessary and once again they must be taken to court before they will act," the California Democrat, who chairs the senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said today.

Officials inside the Fish and Wildlife Service said the delay was caused by receiving new information from the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS said in September that melting of the sea ice would lead to the death of two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population, including all those living in Alaska by 2050.

According to data released by the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, the summer of 2007 set a record low for sea ice in the Arctic with just 1.65 million square miles, which means nearly 40 percent less ice than long-term average between 1979 and 2000.

"We received numerous comments on the USGS reports and have been working to analyze and respond to the information provided during the comment period," the agency said.

Furthermore, Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildfire service said he did not like missing the deadline either, but "it is far more important to use to do it right and have it explained properly to the public," he said.