The measure, which would have required a three quarters majority, was voted down by 29 votes to 23, failing even to secure the simple majority of the 66-member bloc that would have allowed it to claim a moral victory.

The commission has for more than a decade been working to agree on a system to manage whaling should a 19-year moratorium on the industry ever be lifted.

But while Japan said it considered its text a reasonable compromise, anti-whaling nations and environmentalists said the proposal fell well short of something they would ever approve.

"It's a resounding victory for conservation-minded countries and a great loss of face for Japan," New Zealand's Conservation Minister Chris Carter told AFP after the vote.

"It shows that this organisation does not want to return to the bad old days when it was open season for whaling, which is exactly what the Japanese proposal would have led to," he said.

A member of the Japanese delegation, who asked not to be named, said he was disappointed by the outcome of the vote.

"Obviously we're very disappointed about this. We had hoped the resolution would at least have secured a majority vote and gone some way towards bringing this organisation back towards the role that it was meant to do -- that is managing commercial whaling on a sustainable basis."

Japan kills some 650 whales annually under its so-called scientific programme, which is allowed despite the moratorium on commercial catches.

It is pushing for a resumption of full-scale commercial catches, saying that depleted whale stocks have sufficiently recovered since the 1986 ban came into force.

The head of the Japanese delegation, Joji Morishita, told AFP he considered the text a decent compromise and laid out a strict management system for commercial whaling.

"Our document is, from our point of view, reasonable enough to have very sustainable and well-controlled whaling again."

"We are not talking about uncontrolled whaling and this will give us controlled, monitored whaling within a limited harvesting quota. For many people that's a reasonable request," Morishita said.

He accused the anti-catch lobby of trying to bring down the commission.

"Some of the extreme positions of the anti-whaling countries are delaying the process and are trying essentially to destroy this organisation."

"That essentially is our concern -- that we should have something that will normalise this organisation and bring this organisation back to its original task of managing whaling rather than saying 'no whaling'," he said.

He reiterated Japan's repeated threat to leave the 66-member bloc if it did not see progress on the issue.

"Hopefully people realise at this meeting that the completion of this process is very important," he said.

"If nothing happens, my government is under very strong pressure from our parliamentary members," Morishita said.

"Yesterday we had 22 members coming from Japan and they are requesting us to think about such options as withdrawing from this organisation or unilaterally resuming whaling within a 200-mile zone.

"I know that's a very strong suggestion, but the government just cannot ignore those recommendations from parliamentary members and the failure of the RMS process here will give us more pressure."

But conservationists said the Japanese proposal went nowhere near far enough in meeting their concerns.

"What is offered up here is an insult," Carter said before the vote.

"It represents a return to the dirty deals of the past. This is completely unacceptable."

Adopting the text, he said "would be the most retrograde step imaginable".

Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell echoed the sentiment: "It's the sort of fisheries plan that most nations who take sustainable management seriously wouldn't even apply to sardines or cod."

Environmentalists said the document failed to address any of its major objections, such as the suffering of whales under different killing techniques and how commercial catches would be independently regulated.

"The result was to be expected," said Kitty Block of Humane Society International.

"The proposal was so weak that even some of the whaling contries couldn't support it. I don't know what was their reason behind bringing such an insulting package."

All rights reserved. � 2004 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. Related Links
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