South Korea's former whaling port of Ulsan, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Seoul, had sought to build a 600-million-won (595,000-dollar) plant to handle whales accidentally trapped in fishermen's nets.

South Korea, a pro-whaling nation, stopped commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international moratorium signed by the International Whaling Commission, which will open a week-long general session in Ulsan on Monday.

But trade in whale meat is legal in South Korea and fishermen are allowed to sell the meat from whales caught in their nets accidentally, known as by-catch.

The ministry of maritime affairs and fisheries said the government had withdrawn support for the project to build the whale meat plant in Ulsan and the city could not go ahead without state funding.

"We could not accept Ulsan's request for state money to help construct the facility due to lack of funds in our budget," a ministry official told AFP, adding the government's decision also reflected "the views of environmental groups."

International environmental group Greenpeace, backed by South Korean activists, set up a protest camp on April 4 at the site where the city planned to build the plant.

Ulsan city officials confirmed that the plant would not be built at least until the end of 2006. The plant was intended as a cleaner place for processing whale meat, currently treated on board ship or at the quayside.

But they rejected Greenpeace's demand that the city pledge in writing not to build the facility for 10 years.

Greenpeace said its members would stay at the camp until Ulsan provided an official document confirming suspension of the plan.

"Greenpeace is suspicious of Korea, because (it) has the second largest by-catch numbers only after Japan," Oh Young-Ae, a local activist based in Ulsan, said.

In most countries fishermen report by-catches of three or four whales a year, but South Korea's accidental catches stand at more than 100 annually, according to Greenpeace.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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