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CANBERRA - Australia's relationship with Japan is strong enough to withstand the diplomatic stand-off over whaling, Environment Minister Peter Garrett says.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Mr Garrett yesterday announced the federal government would send a formal diplomatic protest to Tokyo and send a Customs vessel into the Southern Ocean to monitor the Japanese whale hunt.
Reports from Tokyo, quoting the US ambassador, say Japan has agreed not to go ahead with plans to kill humpback whales, although it will still slaughter 1000 minke and fin whales.
Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, is carrying out the hunt using a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" - the so-called scientific whaling.
"Japan's research whaling is done in accordance with the rules set by the International Whaling Commission," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, the top government spokesman said overnight.
This morning Mr Garrett said there was no concern the whaling dispute would widen to trade and other issues.
"We think the relationship is robust enough and there's enough good relationships between us ... to have a difference of opinion on this issue," Mr Garrett told the Nine Network.
"But we will push very strongly through diplomatic forums, through the options that we consider legally and through the public campaigns that are necessary for this practice to stop."
US ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, has already said a deal has been struck between his country and Tokyo which will see a ban on hunting of humpback whales.
"I think we had an agreement this morning or last night between the United States and Japan that humpback whales would not be harvested, I think, until maybe the international whaling conference in June," Schieffer told reporters in Tokyo.
Japan still plans to kill 50 of the endangered fin whale and 950 minke whales as part of its hunt.
Greenpeace has called on the Japanese government to confirm the agreement.
"If reports that the Japanese whalers will not take humpbacks are true, we still need an official statement from the Japanese government to confirm this," Greenpeace campaigner Rob Nicoll said in a statement.
"It would be good news for Australia's A$300 million ($345 million) whale watching industry, however the plan to kill 50 endangered fin whales and 935 minke whales is still illegal whaling in a declared whale sanctuary."
- AAP
