SCOTTISH politicians will this morning take part in a mass public demonstration at the Faslane nuclear base.

The MSPs, many of whom are Greens, said they would be blockading the base in opposition to the war in Iraq, and called Faslane the UK's own weapon of mass destruction. It is claimed the Trident base on the Clyde costs the taxpayer millions of pounds every year.

Demonstrations will take place throughout the day at the base. Those involved will include Robin Harper, Eleanor Scott, Mark Ballard, Mark Ruskell and Patrick Harvie of the Green party, and Rosie Kane and Frances Curran from the Scottish Socialist party.

Yesterday, Robin Harper, the Greens' parliamentary leader, said it was vital that campaigners never gave up drawing attention to the existence of nuclear weapons.

He said: ''Our nuclear submarines have the potential to wipe out every major city in both Russia and China within a space of a few hours, and to cause the immediate deaths of up to half a billion people.

''These are the true weapons of mass destruction, and they themselves must be destroyed.''

Mark Ballard, the MSP for Lothians, who plans to chain himself to the base with other protesters, said it was shameful that illegal British weapons were still trained on targets around the world.

''The hypocrisy is quite breathtaking - on the one hand Messrs Blair and Bush claim moral rights to invade other countries to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, yet they are quite happy to spend billions of pounds on their own supply of them.

''They are illegal under international law and waste taxpayers' money that would be better spent on tackling poverty, creating jobs and addressing the very real and present dangers faced by humanity - such as climate change,'' he said.

Rosie Kane, who will be representing the SSP in the absence of Tommy Sheridan, the party leader, who is on holiday, said she would be bearing a banner saying: ''Don't use our taxes to buy weapons and don't use our children to fire them.''

She said: ''All we want to do is draw the country's attention to what's happening in Faslane. We are housing a pile of extremely dangerous nuclear weapons and we have to ask broader questions on the effects of nuclear weapons.

''You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that Faslane could be targeted by terrorists because we are seen as aggressors because of the stance Blair has taken with Bush over Iraq.''