Iceland hints it may hunt whales as summit falters

Iceland made a veiled threat to resume whale hunting yesterday, after walking out during the second day of an acrimonious international conference in Japan.

The Icelandic delegate, Stefan Asmundsson, said his government was looking at "other possibilities" after being denied membership of the International Whaling Commission, which is holding its annual meeting in the city of Shimonoseki. Japan also threatened to withdraw its scientists from one of the commission's panels after losing the latest in a series of votes on the future of whaling.

Mr Asmundsson said, after leading his delegation out of the conference hall to applause from fellow supporters of whaling: "From the political point of view, it is much better to do it within the framework of the international organisation. We were hoping to do this within the IWC ... We are going to have to sit down and evaluate the whole situation."

After two days of tense squabbling, there is less common ground than ever between the anti-whaling nations, including Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and those who would overturn the IWC's 16-year moratorium on commercial whaling, who are led by Japan and Norway.

Iceland's request for re-admission to the organisation was voted down by a majority of members on Monday, because the country refuses to accept the ban of whaling. Yesterday, the commission rejected Japan's request to take an extra 50 whales to add to the 560 it kills every year, purportedly for reasons of scientific research. After losing another vote, which gave directions to the IWC's scientific committee, the Japanese commissioner, Masayuki Komatsu, threatened to withdraw Japanese scientists.

But the anti-whaling bloc also had its setbacks when initiatives led by Australia and Brazil to establish two new whale sanctuaries in the South Pacific and South Atlantic were defeated by the pro-whaling bloc. The sanctuaries were seen as a boon to the whale-watching industry, which attracts more and more tourists every year and is reported to be worth $1bn worldwide annually.

Elliot Morley, Britain's Fisheries minister, said: "There's no doubt whale-watching eclipses the whaling industry," as he denounced Japan's attempt to increase its "scientific" harvest of whales.

"That's the kind of unstable approach to whaling which threatens the collapse of this whole enterprise," he added. "Particularly when countries like Japan treat science with such contempt."