Key nations including Australia and Japan, whose relations have been increasingly strained over whaling, have been meeting since Tuesday away from the cameras at a beachside hotel near Saint Petersburg.

Participants described sometimes sharp disagreements as they looked at a proposal that would allow Japan, Norway and Iceland to openly hunt whales, despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, but would also aim to reduce the total catch over the next 10 years.

Geoffrey Palmer, the former prime minister of anti-whaling New Zealand who helped draft the compromise for the International Whaling Commission (IWC), acknowledged that the proposal "will not satisfy any nation."

"It cannot. It is a compromise," Palmer told the meeting, according to a prepared text.

"To put it another way, often used in domestic politics -- both sides would have to swallow a dead rat," he said.

Australia has already said that the compromise was unacceptable and Japan has hinted it was not satisfied.

But Palmer warned the nations against sticking to "the comfortable acrimony of our established positions."

"If we do not scale this peak, I confidently predict no further attempt will be made for 20 years," Palmer said.

"Governments will not be prepared again to commit the significant diplomatic resources that have gone into the present exercise," he said.

Japan kills hundreds of whales a year in the Antarctic Ocean, revolting the public in Australia and New Zealand where whale-watching is a popular pastime.

Japan skirts the international whaling moratorium by using a loophole that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants. Japan argues that whaling is part of its culture and makes no secret that the meat winds up on dinner plates.

The compromise would bring "scientific whaling" under the control of the IWC, requiring Japan to submit DNA samples and other data to the 88-nation body.

Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium on commercial whaling altogether by lodging objections to the international decision, a practice that would be banned under the compromise.

One sticking point is whether the compromise would allow other nations to enter lawful whaling. South Korea has in the past signaled it does not want to be excluded from any international deal on whaling.

Whale meat is sold legally in South Korea if the mammals are accidentally caught in fishing nets -- a rule regarded with suspicion by environmentalists.

Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett has said the IWC proposal falls well short of his government's bottom line -- ending Japanese whaling in the Antarctic Ocean.

Canberra has threatened legal action against Tokyo unless it sets a time frame to end its Antarctic hunts, threatening to sour relations between the longstanding allies.

Environmentalists have been harshly critical of the compromise, saying it would reward nations that have defied the IWC with ever-larger catches.

"The fact that in the past two years -- the negotiation period of the package -- more whale products have been traded than in the 10 years before, shows there is no good faith by those involved in whaling," said Nicolas Entrup, spokesman for the Munich-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

The Florida meeting cannot alter the 1986 moratorium but can make recommendations to the next full meeting of the IWC, to be held in June in the Moroccan fishing port of Agadir.

The IWC will also hold a regular meeting Thursday and Friday that will review a proposal by Denmark to allow indigenous people in Greenland to kill a limited number of humpback whales.

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