US President Barack Obama has signalled that he will extend the area that will be off limits to fishing and mineral exploitation to the limit of US economic control, some 200 nautical miles around the islands and plans to create the world's biggest marine protected area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The White House will extend an existing protected area, known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and the extended zone would double the world's fully protected marine reserves.Fishing and drilling would be banned from an area that could eventually cover two million square kilometers.