Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a state of emergency in a region of Siberia after an estimated 20,000 tons of diesel fuel spilled from a power plant storage facility and fouled waterways.

The spill took place on Friday at a power plant in an outlying section of the city of Norilsk, 2900 kilometres north-east of Moscow.

Booms were laid in the Ambarnaya River to block the fuel; the river feeds a lake from which springs another river that leads to the environmentally delicate Arctic Ocean.

Putin on Wednesday ordered officials to minimise the consequences of the spill.