The more than 50 countries attending the event are implacably split between pro-whaling nations and conservationists who appear to be a slim majority.

While Tokyo is unlikely to secure the 75 percent vote needed to overturn the 1986 ban on commercial whaling, Japanese officials said they would instead increase their controversial research whaling program which does not require IWC approval.

"I think the number (of whales killed) will rise," said Jun Yamashita, director of Japan's Far Seas Fisheries Division, adding that Japan's plan, which was submitted to the IWC's scientific meeting earlier, could not be made public until Monday.

Japan aims to boost its North Pacific quota of 150 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales, 50 sei whales and 10 sperm whales, but leave its target of 440 minke in the Antarctic unchanged, he said.

"In pursuing our North Pacific plan in 2002, some of the data has been lacking or too old, so this is a review of that program," he said. The two-year review focused on "the number of minke and sei whales taken," he added.

The move flies in the face of Washington's announcement in June that it would use "all diplomatic channels" to urge Japan and Iceland to halt their "unnecessary" research hunts.

The United States has put Japan and Iceland on watch for undermining an international conservation program. Sei, Bryde's, minke, and sperm whales are protected under US laws, and all are listed as endangered species.

Greenpeace Japan's whales campaigner Junko Sakurai criticized Tokyo's planned quota hike for further infringing on the commercial ban.

Whalemeat from the research ends up in supermarkets, inns and hotels across Japan and Greenpeace and other anti-whaling groups charge the research program is simply thinly disguised commercial whaling.

"From our point of view, it is just getting closer to commercial whaling," Sakurai said. "The reason they keep doing this research whaling is because commercial whaling is not likely to be reinstated any time soon."

Iceland resumed whaling in mid-August, ending a 14-year moratorium by authorising a two-year research cull of 200 minke, 200 fin and 100 sei whales, while Norway hunts hundreds of minke in opposition to the ban.

The IWC was founded in 1946 by 14 whaling nations to regulate stocks for an orderly hunt, but since the 1980s its majority has gradually shifted toward conserving whales.

Japan began its "research" whaling in 1987 a year after the commercial whaling ban took effect, using a loophole in the moratorium permitting the hunting of whales for research purposes.

Conservationists said they worried that influence peddling among new IWC members, backed by Japanese aid, might jeopardize a new conservation committee established last year in Berlin.

"There's a lot of speculation here in Sorrento that the whalers might buy their way to a majority at this IWC," Patrick Ramage, director of communications for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said by telephone.

"Japan could effectively stop 30 years of whale conservation in its tracks at the Sorrento meeting if they do indeed achieve a majority."

Japan has denied outright vote-buying, arguing that many African, Caribbean and East Asian nations share its view that whales are crucial food resources that should be exploited.

Tokyo officials likewise accused conservation groups of "terrorism" and "harassment", and said Japan would again try to push for secret balloting in Sorrento.

"For small countries afraid of harassment from big countries and conservation groups, this is very important," said fisheries official Hideki Moronuki.

Japan counts among its pro-whaling allies such countries as Norway, Iceland, Grenada, China, Gabon, and landlocked Mongolia, while conservationists include most European countries, the United States, Britain, Mexico, Kenya, India and Australia.

TERRA.WIRE