The US government said Friday it would ask the company responsible for building a controversial oil pipeline in North Dakota to "voluntarily pause" work, amid protests by local Native American tribes.

"The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions" on the site, US authorities said in a statement shortly after a federal judge denied the tribes' request to halt construction.

"In the interim, we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe," said the statement from the Army, the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior.