The two-week meeting ended with greater protection given to great white sharks, made infamous by the 'Jaws' films, and Asia's Irrawaddy dolphin while a proposal by Japan to increase trade in minke whales was harpooned.

After heated debate over the ivory trade, delegates also voted down a proposal by Namibia to sell two tonnes of ivory per year as African nations agreed on a continent-wide crackdown on domestic markets.

A total of 50 proposals were debated at the summit by 166 member countries of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Bangkok

Traditional UN alliances gave way as African solidarity disappeared over the ivory trade and Israel patiently tried to bring warring parties together.

Controls were placed on sales of the humphead wrasse, a giant coral reef fish under threat from the live aquarium industry and from exploitation for food. Export quotas of caviar were also slashed.

The conference, the 13th of signatories to the most successful wildlife treaty, showed a growing focus on marine life, a controversial move and opposed by countries like Japan with its large fishing industry.

As well as animals, delegates backed greater controls for plant species including the hardwood ramin which has seen forests devastated from rampant commercial logging, notably in Malaysia and Indonesia.

"It was among the best conferences of parties we have ever had," said CITES secretary general Willem Wijnstekers.

But he warned that its failure to get a ten percent boost to its 4.7 million dollar budget -- members approved only a three percent rise -- would hamper efforts to help countries crack down on the huge illegal trade.

US-based conservation group WildAid said the conference was a great success with its focus on law enforcement.

CITES is the world's biggest treaty regulating trade in wildlife but conservationists had complained that countries were not doing enough to enforce its rules.

Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra said at the conference opening that the kingdom would spearhead efforts to set up a Southeast Asian regional wildlife "Interpol" and to form a wildlife police training centre.

"We think CITES is finally beginning to acquire some small teeth," said Steve Galster of WildAid Thailand.

On Monday, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nationspledged for the first time to share intelligence, tighten borders and review weak laws to crack down on smuggling in the region, estimated to be 25 percent of the global multi-billion dollar racket.

"This is the most conservation-minded CITES meeting for a long time and it set the whole tone of the conference," International Fund for Animal Welfare delegate head Peter Pueschel told AFP.

He said the test for CITES was to make good on the measures agreed at the meeting before the next one in the Netherlands in three years.

However, some nations pushing to expand wildlife trade claimed some advances. Among the most controversial agreements, Namibia and South Africa were allowed to each kill five endangered black rhinos every year even though animal welfare groups said fewer than 4,000 survived in the wild worldwide.

Namibia also won a last-minute victory for strictly controlled sales of traditional ivory carvings.

And along with Botswana and South Africa, it won support for a one-off sale of existing ivory stocks, only the second since an international ivory trading ban was introduced 15 years ago.

A bid by Kenya for a 20-year moratorium on the commercial ivory trade was also defeated, despite reducing the proposal to six years.

The United States won a proposal to loosen trade restrictions on the bald eagle in recognition that numbers have surged back from the brink of extinction there.

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