"This campaign is aimed at telling the Norwegian government that it is not acceptable to open up this area to oil exploration," WWF spokesman Clive Tesar told AFP.

Norway is the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter, but it has seen its production decline since peaking in 2001 and no major discoveries have been made in recent years.

Oil companies have as a result been eyeing the Lofoten Islands for some time, but environmentalists and fishermen are opposed to oil exploration in the area.

The waters are home to the world's biggest remaining cod stocks, a species that has been a victim of overfishing in both Europe and North America, as well as the biggest herring stocks.

The government, under pressure from environmentalists and itself torn on the issue, has prohibited all oil activities in the unspoiled area until at least 2010, when the issue is due to be reviewed.

"It is complete madness to trade in a sustainable fishery that could continue to accommodate the interests of both people and nature for generations, for a few years of quick and dirty profits from oil," Rasmus Hanssen, the head of WWF's Norwegian branch, said in a statement.

"The Norwegian government must declare these areas off limits to oil and gas," he added.

WWF already has similar campaigns underway in Alaska and Russia to ban offshore oil and gas development across the Arctic.

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