But he was barking up a different tree when he took time out from the G7 finance ministers' conference in Canada for some dogsledding.

To give the ministers and central bank presidents a true Arctic experience, Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty had arranged for them to spend some time dogsledding on frozen Frobisher Bay.

US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and most of the other G7 officials gave it a miss, but Mr King, Italian finance minister Giullo Tremonti, Canadian central bank governor Mark Carney and Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi bravely took the reins.

"It was wonderful," Mr King said.

Mr Carney panicked when his sled took off without his guide, shouting: "Hey, don't leave me," as his dogs took off in the wrong direction.

Japanese finance minister Naoto Kan and Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa were also signed up for rides.

Mr Flaherty said they could not have picked a nicer day as it was not as cold or windy as Thursday.

"Nice" for the Arctic translated into around minus 17 degrees Celsius -- or just 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

"It was just gorgeous. It was beautiful," Mr Flaherty said.