Can an AT89S52 be programmed using an Arduino as ISP? Since the AT89S52 controller is ISP programmable is it possible to use an Arduino UNO as a programmer to upload the hex file to the 8952 ? 

I've tried various programmer softwares such as progisp, 8051 loader and ISP Prog v1.4 but the Arduino doesnt show up as a programmer on any of these. I've uploaded the ArduinoISP sketch on the UNO and then tried to program the 8952 without any luck. 

According to my understanding the ISP programmers use an ATMega8 ,so is what I'm trying to do possible or do I need to purchace an ISP programmer ?
You should be able to use the Arduino as an ISP since an ISP is basically just a serial to SPI interface. If you are trying to use the arduino software to upload your program, you will need to edit your boards.txt file to be able to talk to the chip. If you are just using avrdude you will need to update your avrdude.conf.  AVR Freaks has a post on someone trying something similar and may be of some help. Without knowing your environment it's difficult to give more specific advice