The IWC meets in Agadir, Morocco to consider a controversial "peace plan" proposed on April 22 by Cristian Maquieira, the chairman of the 88-nation commission, to legitimize but reduce whaling.

Under the draft proposal Japan, Iceland and Norway would reduce their whale kills over the next decade, subject to tight monitoring, with Japan eventually cutting its Antarctic whale culls by three quarters.

Maquieira, a native of Chile, will address the 11 anti-whaling countries from Latin America that form the so-called Group of Buenos Aires, organizers said.

"Our country maintains a solid conservationist position against the hunting of whales," said Costa Rica's representative to the IWC, Javier Rodriguez.

Latin American environmental groups began a meeting also in San Jose on Monday to define their position ahead of the June meeting.

Elsa Cabrera of the Cetacean Conservation Center in Chile said there is "great concern" over the IWC proposal "because it lifts a de facto moratorium on commercial whale hunting, destroying the largest advance in the history of international environmental rights."

The IWC said in an April statement that the "10-year peace plan" would save thousands of whales and present "a great step forward in terms of the conservation of whales and the management of whaling."

But it was roundly criticized by anti-whaling nations and environmental groups, which charged that it would end the moratorium in all but name and risked reviving a dwindling industry in whale meat.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay make up the Buenos Aires group.

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