Japan's "scientific" whaling in the Antarctic has suffered a further embarrassment, with a new hunt failing to obtain benchmark international endorsement.
The International Whaling Commission's 200-member scientific committee split over the controversial minke whale kill, which is scheduled to begin in December.
Conservationist observers said the majority of scientists in the committee said Japan had failed to justify any need for the lethal research.
But backers of the proposal to kill nearly 4000 minke whales said they should be allowed to continue killing whales, while developing non-lethal research methods.
The scientific committee said in a report released late on Friday that, despite this lack of consensus, it did agree that more work should be done on flaws in the research plan identified by an expert panel.
The panel, set up to assess the plan known as NEWREP-A, said in April: "the current proposal does not demonstrate the need for lethal sampling".
Japan submitted NEWREP-A to the IWC after the previous program was outlawed by the International Court of Justice in a case brought by Australia.
NEWREP-A proposes to harpoon 330 minke whales annually for 12 years for a total kill of 3996 in waters stretching from the South Pacific, westward below Australia to the South Atlantic.
"It's getting harder and harder for Japan to pretend there isn't an issue with this whaling," said Matt Collis, marine campaigns manager with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
"There is a mounting body of evidence from the international court onwards against it."
In Tokyo, Japan's IWC Commissioner, Joji Morishita, said there was no change in its stance, but declined to confirm a departure date for the whaling fleet.
"We of course intend to resume whaling again this year – but we still have more work to do," he told a news conference.
with Reuters
