"Every year about 300,000 sea mammals and 1,500 whales are killed by hunters," said Emanuela Marinelli of the environmental group Greenpeace.

She said the protesters had rallied to persuade a majority at this week's meeting of the International Whaling Commission to vote against a resumption of whaling.

"Pressure from the other camp in favour of resuming whale hunting is very strong," she said: "If it gets its way, numerous species will disappear in a few years."

The chairman of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was set Monday to propose ending an 18-year moratorium on whale hunting at the opening of the body's annual meeting here, according to a confidential document seen by AFP.

Hendrik Fischer, of Denmark, was scheduled to tell commissioners from some 50 nations that a resumption of commercial whaling is vital to restore the credibility of the dispute-wracked body and its ability to ensure the conservation and management of the world's whale stocks.

The IWC is bitterly divided between countries opposed to a resumption of commercial whaling and those backing it, like Japan, Norway and Iceland.

Conservation bodies like Greenpeace are also fiercely opposed to whaling, saying it is inhumane and unnecessary.

Among those in town to plead the cause of the whales was Sicilian-born diving champion Enzo Majorca, summoned by another leading protection group, the WWF.

The moratorium against whaling has been in place since 1986 to prevent the extinction of a number of endangered species.

But it has been ignored by Norway, while Japan's and Iceland's whaling fleets have been allowed annual quotas of some species for "scientific" purposes, which opponents say is commercial whaling in disguise.

Japan, which has been accused of peddling foreign aid for votes from some smaller African and Caribbean IWC members, has threatened to form its own breakaway whaling organisation if the moratorium does not fall.

TERRA.WIRE