ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Japan has said it will push ahead with its controversial plan to hunt humpback whales despite warnings by Australia and New Zealand it would be a "provocative act."

"Japan is proceeding with its full research program as planned at this stage and this includes the humpbacks," said Glenn Inwood, spokesman for the Japanese delegation at the annual talks of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

His remarks came as ministers in charge of environmental issues from Australia, New Zealand and Britain met with Japan's chief negotiator at the commission, Joji Morishita, on the sidelines of the four-day talks which began in Anchorage, Alaska on Monday this week.

"We have agreed to continue talking but as yet we have reached no common position" on the issue, New Zealand's Conservation Minister Chris Carter told reporters. Even before negotiations began the Japanese delegation said they had "very low expectations" of the talks, and yesterday Morishita echoed Carter's remarks.

Compromise rejected

Japan wants to kill 50 humpbacks this summer, from stocks that migrate along the coasts of Australia and New Zealand into the tropical Pacific, under its whale scientific research program. The plan has drawn fire from the two countries as well as environmental groups concerned over the fate of the charismatic mammals.

Humpback whales are renowned for their acrobatic displays, attracting millions of whale watchers annually and generating income for coastal communities around the world, said Patrick Ramage from the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

At the opening of the 75-nation IWC talks on Monday, Japan said it was prepared to consider shelving the humpback hunting plan if the IWC allowed its small coastal communities in four Japanese towns to hunt minke whales instead.

Tokyo's compromise plan was immediately dismissed by a coalition of anti-whaling nations: Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Britain, Argentina, Germany and the United States. Carter and Australian environment minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday condemned the humpback hunting plan.

Provocative gesture

Japan's proposal is an "extraordinary provocative gesture to the people of New Zealand and we are asking you as a measure of goodwill to build better dialogue," Carter said. "If there is one thing the Japanese government can do at this meeting ... it would be to drop the humpbacks from the program," he said. "It is a very, very provocative act."

Carter said Tokyo's humpback blitz was a "calculated" move "to undermine dramatically the standing, the affection, the relationship between the Australian and the Japanese people."

The IWC's founding treaty allows whales to be killed under so-called "special permits" for scientific research, issued by member governments. It has banned commercial whaling since 1986 and environmental groups say Japan is exploiting a legal loophole that allows whaling for scientific research.

Japan kills about 1,000 whales a year under its scientific program then sells the meat. Despite global outcry, Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to push for the lifting of the 20-year moratorium on commercial whale hunting.

Last year, Japan won a non-binding resolution in favour of commercial whaling, but fell short of the number of supporters needed to overturn the moratorium. Despite the moratorium, however, the IWC has a policy of allowing so-called subsistence hunts for natives in four nations to satisfy longstanding needs.

At the IWC talks yesterday, delegates unanimously agreed to renew five-year quotas for whale hunts by Alaskan natives in the United States and the indigenous Chukotka people in Russia as well as those in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

But it deferred Greenland's renewal bid as the Danish territory wants to add humpback whales to its quota and expand the number of bowhead whales taken by its aboriginal hunters.