The Huffington Post launched a French-language edition on Wednesday targeting Canada's Quebec province -- the fourth foreign version of the popular news and opinion website.

Le Huffington Post Quebec joins the flagship US site and editions in Britain, France and one aimed at English-speaking Canada.

Quebec has a population of just eight million but Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington said its unique culture raises the need for a site distint from The Huffington Post Canada.

"We want to be present in all of Canada," Huffington said in an interview with AFP.

"Quebec is a very important part of Canada and has its own character, its own culture, its own institutions and we want to capture that through a dedicated site," she said.

Le Huffington Post Quebec is based in a tiny office on the 24th floor of a downtown Montreal skyscraper looking over snow-capped Mount Royal.

The team of four full-time and three part-time journalists and stringers is competing with local heavyweights LaPresse.ca and Canoe.ca, owned respectively by Power Corp. and Quebecor, and public broadcaster Radio-Canada.

The established trio have a firm grip on online readers in the province but Huffington Post Quebec chief editor Patrick White said "there is room for us."

The Huffington Post Quebec will include articles produced for its France website, said White, who previously worked for Thomson Reuters and Quebecor, and showcase the "best of the Web," providing breaking news and 120 blogs.

Its launch has not been problem-free.

Last month, a dozen well-known personalities in Quebec who had agreed to blog for the Huffington Post suddenly withdrew amid controversy over the fact that they would not be paid for their contributions.

"They want to exploit local talent without paying for it," complained Simon Jodoin, who is in charge of blogs at the weekly culture website Voir.ca.

Voir.ca boosted its own offerings by recruiting three dozen more bloggers and agreeing to pay them a modest $5 for every 1,000 page views.

A popular blog post on Voir.ca may attract up to 10,000 views, Jodoin said, earning its author $50.

The Huffington Post earns money in the United States from advertising linked to the number of visitors and page views and while that may be profitable in a country of over 300 million some are wondering if it can work in little Quebec.

"They (The Huffington Post) have a small editorial team and the rest is provided by volunteers," said Daniel Giroux, a media expert at Laval University in Quebec City.

"I don't expect it to be profitable for the first two or three years, but we might be surprised," he said.

The Huffington Post was launched by Huffington, a Greek-American author and columnist, in May 2006 and sold to AOL last February for $315 million.

Huffington, in a roundtable with journalists, said Wednesday that next up is an Italian version of The Huffington Post and she is in talks to create news portals in Germany, Brazil and Japan, as well as maybe her homeland, Greece.