The photos showed intact forests spreading across mountain and valley, with occasional logging coupe interruptions.

The areas the government wants to delist were part of 170,000 hectares of tall eucalypt, old-growth and rainforest that in June last year were added to the 1.4 million hectare Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Mr Hunt declined on Monday to say whether he had personally seen the forests in question. Wilderness Society Tasmanian campaigns manager Vica Bayley said: ''To be blunt, he appears to have very little understanding of his decision.''

Mr Bayley said the World Heritage Committee understood the true state of the forests, knew they met the criteria for listing and had repeatedly asked for them to be protected. ''We're confident they would rebuff this,'' he said.

The green groups said in the case of the bitterly contested 7000-hectare middle and upper Florentine Valley - part of the area proposed for delisting - only about 150 hectares had been logged.