Site 1201, ODP Leg 195, was drilled in the West Philippine Basin, ~100 km west of the Palau-Kyushu ridge at latitude 19 degrees North. The cored section included ~ 400 m thick sequence of volcaniclastic turbidites overlying a section of basaltic pillow lavas. Based on basalt petrography and trace element geochemical affinities, the lower unit is interpreted as West Philippine basin basement, while the volcaniclastic sequence formed from debris shed from the early Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) island arc to the east. Site 1201 lies on Chron 21, suggesting the basement age may be as old as 49 Ma. Pb-isotope ratios were determined for 9 basement basalts and 3 large clasts. Excluding two samples, basement basalts have a narrow range of variation: 17.87-18.18 (206Pb/204Pb), 15.45-15.52 (207Pb/204Pb) and 37.7-37.9 (208Pb/204Pb). These values are similar to those of basalts recovered from DSDP Site 447 in the West Philippine basin floor to the southwest. Two of the basement samples and the three arc derived clasts have higher and more scattered Pb-isotope ratios. The new data show that even early formed West Philippine basin floor basalt typically has an "Indian Ocean" rather than a "Pacific Ocean"-type Pb-isotopic character. Pb-isotopic compositions of the clasts overlap with values reported for volcanic rocks from other early IBM arc locations.