Greenpeace representatives from Japan, Europe, the United States, Brazil and Australia presented a letter for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso "calling for the end to the political persecution" of the activists in a visit to coincide with human rights day on Wednesday.

The two Japanese Greenpeace members go on trial early next year on charges of stealing whale meat during their investigation.

"We want Prime Minister Aso to know that if Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki are to be tried for exposing whale meat embezzlement and working to end the killing of whales... then we should all be arrested," said Greenpeace Japan's Jun Hoshikawa.

Sato, one of Greenpeace's most high profile spokesmen in Japan, and Suzuki are on bail after being arrested in June. They face 10 years in prison if convicted, according to Greenpeace.

They took part in a lengthy investigation in which Greenpeace charged that whalers on the taxpayer-backed hunt had taken meat home and sold it on the black market.

Environmentalists and most Western nations strongly oppose Japan's whaling. The country kills hundreds of whales each year in the name of research, with the meat nonetheless ending up on dinner tables.

Japan's whaling fleet is believed to have set sail last month on its annual Antarctic hunt.

In a change of policy, Japan's Fisheries Agency and the operator of the factory ship refused to confirm the schedule of the five-month voyage, arguing the government needed to assure the safety of its crew.

During the last Antarctic hunt, activists from the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tracked down and hurled bottles of chemicals at the fleet in an attempt to disrupt operations, leading Japan to label them "terrorists."

Greenpeace has said it will not chase the current whaling expedition, setting the fight to clear the two activists its top priority.

Japan hunts whales despite a 1986 moratorium, using a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants. Only Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium altogether.

The Tokyo government argues that Western opponents of whaling, led by Australia, are insensitive to Japan's culture of whaling.

But few Japanese eat whale on a regular basis and surveys show that many young people are questioning the hunt.

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