Japan has defended its practice of 'scientific' whale hunting at the annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Chile, insisting it had yielded important scientific results.

Officials from Japan, which is pressing for the ban on commercial whaling to be lifted, said during the third day of the meeting in Santiago that their research has shown that whales are healthy and abundant in the Antarctic.

Researchers at Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research say they have discovered interesting information on the sexual maturation of whale species which they said could not have been obtained in any other way.

They added that since the moratorium on commercial whale-hunting came into force in 1986, many whale species populations have increased.

Countries that oppose whale hunting, such as Australia, the United States and many in the European Union and Latin America, have urged Japan to reconsider its program, arguing that research is possible without killing whales.

Some observers believe Japan's decision to present its findings to the IWC could open the door to ending the practice.

"What Japan has accepted is... for the first time to put up the scientific hunting up for discussion at the IWC," Chilean delegate Cristian Maquieira said.

But the spokesman of the Japanese delegation, Glenn Inwood, rejected this outright, saying that according to IWC rules, scientific research "is managed by the countries by themselves, so it does not have to be reviewed by the IWC."

According to the IWC, Japan, which has a fishing quota of 1,000, hunted 551 Minke whales in the Antarctic and 158 in the north Pacific Ocean in 2007-08, as well as another 150 other species in the same ocean.

The Japanese delegation complained of an active campaign of harassement by environmental organisations against its research ships.

The Greenpeace ICW delegate, Milko Schvartzman, said the campaign group's ship, the Esperenza, has stepped in several times at the last minute to save whales from Japanese boats, preventing 300 from being killed last season.

- AFP