Nuuk, Copenhagen weigh liberty

COPENHAGEN:

Greenland hopes to cut all ties with Copenhagen, but leaders are proceeding cautiously with independence plans for the Danish self-governing territory despite US President Donald Trump's threats to take over the Arctic island.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the United States needs Greenland for its national security, while Denmark and Greenland have stressed the island is not for sale and that Greenlanders themselves must decide their own future.

"We have an agreement with our Greenland fellow citizens that they decide their future in freedom, based on their own assessments and their own will," Danish historian and former diplomat Bo Lidegaard told AFP.

"For us, it's a violation of everything we stand for."