Obama team keeps Bush's polar bear climate rule

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Friday it will keep a Bush-era rule that weakens protection for polar bears' icy habitat and plays down links between the threatened status of the species and climate change.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the decision, saying that revoking the rule would cause confusion, and that protecting the big Arctic bears was best tackled under a comprehensive climate-change strategy.

"Seeing the polar bear's habitat melting and an iconic species threatened is an environmental tragedy of the modern age," Salazar said in a telephone briefing.

He added, "The best course of action for protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act is to wisely implement the current rule, not revoke it at this time."

Polar bears depend on Arctic sea ice for hunting seals and rearing their young. As it melts, bears are forced to swim farther in search of food. Some drown and others are forced to hunt on land.

U.S. government scientists have specifically linked declining sea ice to the polar bears' fate.

Former President George W. Bush's administration listed polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act on May 15, 2008, but issued a rule that leaves global warming off the list of threats the federal government must consider in protecting the bear.

That rule will be retained by the Obama administration.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Will Dunham)