This article presents the use of answers set programming (ASP) to mine sequential patterns. ASP is an alternative to constraint programming approaches to mine patterns in a declarative manner. Indeed, the syntax of ASP, close to Prolog, is very relevant for representing knowledge and its solving process is efficient. We propose a first encoding of sequential (closed and maximal) patterns mining. We compare computational performances of these encodings with respect to a constraint programming approach (CPSM). The performances obtained are lower than the former but our purely declarative encoding offers more perpectives for expert knowledge integration.