A SMALL group of environmentalists occupying Rockall in protest at oil activity in the Atlantic claimed sovereignty over the inhospitable outcrop yesterday.

The activists, from Greenpeace, hoisted a flag at the top of the 70ft-high rock and declared a new global state of Waveland.

But they stressed they did not want to own Rockall.

The move is unlikely to bring the green body into the periodic diplomatic dispute among Britain, Ireland, Iceland and Denmark over the rock, which is 290 miles from the Scottish coast.

The Government has said Rockall is British territory and that the protesters are welcome to stay as long as they 1ike.

Three Greenpeace activists, Peter, Meike and Eric, who were landed on the island by helicopter last week, plan to stay "indefinitely" by taking refuge in a survival capsule.

Four campaigners will occupy Rockall, with one always "off-duty" on the support vessel MV Greenpeace, which is stationed nearby.

Peter said: "We reject the governance of a country which permits new oil exploration despite professed concern for the climate."

Waveland was a new kind of country designed to protect the globe, rather than to exploit it, he said, adding: "We hope this is the start of a peaceful revolution.

"Waveland expresses every person's right to oust destructive governance and replace it with a new one, to put the climate before profits from oil."

Greenpeace deputy executive dirertor Chris Rose said the group did not want to own Rockall but to bring to attention its claim that new oil development was senseless and a danger to the atmosphere and the ocean.

"Four nations want the oil around Rockall. We do not recognise their right to develop it. We have told Tony Blair that we don't want Rockall itself, but that the oil should be set aside for the common good," he said.

"We are borrowing it until it is freed from the threat of development."

The Greenpeace activists may be breaching the planning conditions of the Western Isles Council.

Rockall comes under the jurisdiction of the Western Isles Council and is an off shore outpost of the Obbe ward in Harris.

When adventurer Tom McClean of Loch Nevis planned to take up residence on Rockall in a temporary coffin-shaped shelter in 1985 he applied to the council for planning permission.

A tongue-in-cheek report by a planning official said the proposal contravened "in the most extreme fashion, the provisions of the council's approved policy on ribbon and sporadic development".

But it was also pointed out that Mr McClean would not need planning consent if he occupied the island for less than 28 days.

Now council chief executive Brian Stewart says Greenpeace might technically require planning permission if its three activists remain longer than 28 days with their solar survival capsule.

"We might even require a site visit," he quipped.

Mr Stewart said the UDI declaration was a matter for the British Government.

A Greenpeace spokeswoman said yesterday: "We know it was not a sovereign state when he landed on it. Perhaps the planning application is in the post.

"However, now that it is a new sovereign state we do not need planning permission. We are not prepared to accept the sovereignty of any country which wishes to exploit the oi1 resources of this area."