Defence Minister Robert Hill said the weekend drill in the Coral Sea off northeast Australia would involve a Japanese coast guard vessel boarding the suspect ship with back-up from Australian, US and French forces.

"The aim of the exercise is to practice intercepting, boarding and searching vessels suspected of illegal trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related materials," Hill said in a statement.

"Exercise Pacific Protector will further improve our capabilities to conduct actual maritime interdiction operations in partnership," he said.

The drill is the first in a series of 10 air, ground and sea exercises planned by the 11-nation Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a US-led grouping set up earlier this year to counter trade in WMD.

While PSI members insist the initiative does not target specific nations, the drive is seen as aimed primarily at what Washington calls "rogue states" like Iran, Libya and North Korea.

The high-profile role of Japan in Pacific Protector further highlighted the perception of North Korea as a prime suspect in weapons smuggling.

Japan is widely regarded as the most likely target of any nuclear strike by North Korea and a ferry linking Japan to North Korea has also been cited as an alleged transit route for weapons parts and drugs bound for Pyongyang.

Hill said Australia would lead operation Pacific Protector, which will involve around 800 military and law enforcement personnel from Australia, the United States, France and Japan.

The exercise is due to get underway at dawn Saturday with aerial searches for a simulated Japanese-flagged commercial merchant vessel suspected of carrying items related to weapons of mass destruction.

Combined military and law enforcement assets from all four nations will then trail the ship before the Japanese Coast Guard boards the vessel and seizes WDM-related cargo, Hill said.

Taking part in the operation will be the Australian frigate HMAS Melbourne, Australian Coastwatch surveillance aircraft, the US destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur and Japanese coast guard patrol boat Shikishima.

The target ship will be the merchant vessel MV Private Franklin J Phillips, temporarily renamed the MV Tokyo Summer.

The exercise will come 10 days after PSI members meeting in Paris reaffirmed their determination to halt smuggling of banned arms and prevent WMD from reaching the hands of international terrorists.

"The increasingly aggressive efforts by proliferators to stand outside or to circumvent existing non-proliferation norms and to profit from such trade requires new and stronger actions by the international community," the 11 said in a joint statement issued in Paris.

It said all PSI members were "deeply concerned about this threat and the danger that these items could fall into the hands of terrorists."

The PSI group currently comprises Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United States, although participants say they hope to recruit more countries.

Exercise Pacific Protector follows inconclusive six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear standoff in Beijing late last month.

WAR.WIRE