THIRTY leading ministers and priests have said they are prepared to be arrested as part of a blockade of the Trident submarine base on the Clyde.

The protest, which aims to close the Faslane base on 12 February, is expected to attract 1,400 people.

Leaders of Scotland's major churches will hold a service outside the base to emphasise their opposition to nuclear weapons. At least nine MSPs are also due to join the demonstration.

Tommy Sheridan, the Scottish Socialist Party leader, is expected to be joined by Robin Harper, a Green MSP, and Caroline Lucas, one of the party's English Euro MPs, in being prepared to be arrested. Mr Sheridan spent five days in jail last month after refusing to pay a fine following his arrest at the base last February.

Yesterday he said he would do the same again.

Other MSPs expected to take part include Labour backbencher John McAllion, independent Dennis Canavan, and Nicola Sturgeon, Sandra White, Bruce Crawford, Dorothy Grace-Elder and Fiona Hyslop from the Scottish National Party.

The service will be led by the Rt Rev Andrew McLellan, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Most Rev Bruce Cameron, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and representatives of the Catholic and other churches, and the Salvation Army.

Clerics willing to risk arrest are among 50 due to join the protest, who also include the Rev Norman Shanks, leader of the Iona Community, and the Rev Dr Kevin Franz, convener of Action of Churches Together in Scotland.

The protest, which is being organised by the Trident Ploughshares and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is due to start at 7am to coincide with a shift change at the submarine base, near Helensburgh.

Demonstrators, who are expected to include people from Ireland, Belgium and Denmark, will link arms and sit across the two entrances to the submarine base, near Helensburgh, to prevent vehicles entering or leaving.

Those willing to be arrested include the Rev Alan McDonald, convener of the Church of Scotland's Church and Nation committee. He said: "The General Assembly has a clear and consistent position that nuclear weapons are morally and theologically wrong. While I have never been arrested before, sometimes you have to be prepared to stand up for what you believe."

Another, the Very Rev Griff Dines, the Scottish Episcopal Church's Provost of St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, said: "The churches have been quite clear that the use of nuclear weapons is morally indefensible and it is important to make that point as forcibly as possible."

Father Gilbert Markus, the Catholic chaplain at Strathclyde University, who will follow suit, said nuclear weapons violated the immunity that non-combatants should enjoy in war.

Father Markus, who has been convicted of offences during protests in England against Cruise missiles, said: "This seems to be a rational and considered movement to persuade the Government to obey international law."

Mr Sheridan called on the police to uphold the law in an even-handed way and recognise that protesters would be attempting to uphold international law.

He said: "The time for talk is over and action is now required but we will act in a non-violent manner to oppose nuclear weapons."

Mr Harper, a veteran of anti-nuclear marches in the 1950s and 60s, said: "Britain needs to set an example. The fact that we continue to possess such weapons only encourages other relatively small countries to acquire them."