TOKYO - JAPAN is seeking the arrest of a fourth anti-whaling activist who tried to disrupt the country's controversial Antarctic Ocean hunt in 2007, a report said on Wednesday.

The Japanese police sent Interpol the name of Hester Bartels, 41, a Dutch member of the Sea Shepherd group, Jiji Press reported.

Japan's National Police Agency declined to confirm the report.

Last year Japan sent Interpol the names of two American and one British member of Sea Shepherd, for allegedly hurling a flare on board a Japanese whaling ship in February 2007.

Interpol has the authority to issue a 'red notice' alerting member nations to be on the lookout for a suspect, but it is not clear whether the agency has done so for the four Sea Shepherd members in response to Japan's request.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, headquartered in the US state of Washington, has vowed to stop Japan's whaling, by force if necessary.

The campaigners have also chased the Japanese fleet in the Antarctic's Southern Ocean during the current season.

The Japanese government, which says whaling is part of the national culture, plans to kill around 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium that allows 'lethal research' on whales. -- AFP