Whaling activists withdraw threat to ram Japan fleet

CANBERRA, Feb 13 (Reuters) Activists today withdrew a threat to ram a Japanese whaling fleet in the frigid Southern Ocean, while in Tokyo pro-whaling nations met to push for a return to commercial fishing of the giant creatures.

The two sides blamed each other for the clash near Antarctica late yesterday which holed a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship, the Robert Hunter.

The Japanese ship Kaiko Maru had its propeller damaged and the Japanese fisheries spokesman dubbed the anti-whaling protesters as terrorists.

The activists had threatened to ram a vessel into the back of a Japanese factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, to stop whales being hauled on board for processing.

But Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson withdrew the threat today after he said New Zealand had pledged stronger action to stop the Japanese fleet.

''We made an agreement that we would not ram or disable...the Nisshin Maru, and New Zealand will do everything it can to stop whaling, specifically to stop them killing 50 humpback whales,'' Watson told Reuters by satellite phone from his ship.

Both Australia and New Zealand warned the activists they were placing lives at risk and New Zealand Conservation Minister Chris Carter demanded a halt to the high seas drama.

Carter said Watson's ramming threats were ''ridiculous and blackmail'', but Wellington would not send a naval vessel to intervene despite Japanese demands his country detain the protest ships and prosecute their crews.

DIPLOMATIC JOSTLING In Tokyo, a special meeting of the International Whaling Commission began today, with hosts Japan and like-minded countries trying to build momentum to resume commercial hunting.

But prospects for dialogue in the polarised organisation appeared slim.

Only 36 of the International Whaling Commission's 72 members are expected to attend the three-day meeting, with some 26 anti-whaling nations -- including Australia, New Zealand and the United States -- refusing to attend.

''One of our goals is to improve the atmosphere of the IWC, which has become one of confrontation, and to improve dialogue,'' Minoru Morimoto, the commissioner for Japan, told the meeting.

''It's a shame that most anti-whaling nations chose confrontation,'' he said, adding he hoped the commission would at its annual meeting in May seriously consider normalisationn -- as Japanese term commercial whaling.

Outside the meeting, three anti-whaling protesters, including a man wearing a mask of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's face, carried a sign reading ''Welcome to the commercialisation meeting''. One activist was dressed as a weeping whale.

Pasted to the sign were 82 dollars notes and names of several countries, an allusion to charges by anti-whalers that Japan had bought pro-whaling votes at the IWC with foreign aid.

Japan has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Anti-whaling nation Britain has set out to recruit more like-minded nations to join the commission and block Japan's drive to end a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Japan, which says whaling is a cherished cultural tradition, began scientific research whaling in 1987. The meat, which under whaling commission rules must be sold for consumption, ends up in supermarkets and pricey restaurants.

REUTERS DKA RN1539