The week-long International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in South Korea's former whaling port of Ulsan saw Japan secure far more votes than in previous years but narrowly fail in several bids to tilt the 66-member body in its favour for the first time in more than two decades.

And despite the commission condemning Japan's plans to double the number of whales killed under its controversial scientific research programme in the Antarctic, Tokyo said it still intended to go ahead with the proposals.

With the commission deadlocked between two fiercely opposing camps, the meeting closed with an agreement to consider holding high-level talks to break an impasse on a management scheme that would regulate an eventual return to commercial whaling, if a 19-year moratorium is ever lifted.

Japan said it was happy with the outcome, despite being voted down on all its major proposals and failing even to secure the simple majority that would have allowed it to claim a moral victory.

"We are very happy," Japanese delegation head Joji Morishita told AFP. "We are making progress, and we felt a very strong degree of support and consolidation at this meeting. We are very hopeful for the next meeting... my impression is that the middle ground countries are coming forth."

Japan has repeatedly threatened to leave the bloc, saying its failure to adopt a management scheme for commercial whaling made the organisation a dead duck, but Morishita said that the momentum now seemed to be in Japan's favour.

"We have close to a simple majority, and it's not the best time for us to go out," he said. "We can make some more progress, definitely."

Leading anti-whaling campaigner New Zealand said it, too, was pleased with the outcome of the meeting, having managed to hold off what conservationists described as Japan's attempts to lead a "hostile takeover" of the commission.

"I've been really surprised that the conservation bloc managed to keep it's majority," Conservation Minister Chris Carter told AFP, adding that New Zealand and Australia considered the commission in dire need of reform.

"I come away from the IWC quite disillusioned," he said. "I think this organisation is desperately in need of a massive overhaul... My prognosis for the IWC is it's very sick and in need of radical medical attention.

"It needs to become a modern international organisation with a disputes mechanism process with penalties for countries that break the rules and, like Japan, find loopholes within the rules to continue whaling."

Together with Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell, he said he would push for a ministerial meeting.

"At the moment it (the IWC) is locked in two competing camps who are not listening to each other," he said. "We need to move on."

Non-governmental organisations broadly welcomed the meeting's achievements but warned that much needed to be done to maintain the anti-whaling lobby's majority.

"We leave with the conservation majority held but we're disappointed... to have to come together every year and worry about the majority because more and more countries are recruited," said the WWF's Susan Lieberman.

"On the scientific whaling issue, we're relieved that yet again we were able to condemn Japan's scientific programme, but still frustrated that the programme is going to go on anyhow."

She described Japan's increasing dominance as "a very serious concern" and said that environmental groups would be trying to persuade more conservation-minded countries to join the commission.

One factor explaining Japan's increased support was the accession of four pro-whaling countries on the eve of the conference, with conservationists alleging that Japan effectively buys votes from small island nations and developing countries through its overseas aid programme.

New Zealand's Carter said that the anti-whaling lobby would also be recruiting to shore up its camp.

"We will of course be encouraging conservation-minded countries, whether they're new member states of the European Union or, in our case, states in the South Pacific who are conservation-minded -- and most are -- to join."

He described the outcome of the meeting as "a triumph for science over hard cash, and a triumph for conservation over a lot of effort by Japan to recruit votes".

Nicola Beynon of the Humane Society International said the anti-whaling bloc had little room for manoeuvre.

"There's certainly no room for complacency," she said. "The anti-whaling countries need to lift their game up to the next level."

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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