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Sydney: Australia is to put pressure on the International Whaling Commission next week to ensure that commercial whaling can no longer be conducted under the guise of science, the environment minister said on Saturday.
Australian officials attending a March 7 meeting in London will push for the whaling commission to set "agreed priorities and criteria for research," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said, in the latest escalation in Australia's campaign to end the annual slaughter of hundreds of whales by a Japanese fleet in the Antarctic Ocean.
He said, "We have a responsibility to continue to increase our efforts to make sure that these beautiful animals aren't killed in the name of science," adding, "the loophole which permits the killing of whales in the name of science will stop."
The London meeting will consider the agenda for the IWC's annual conference in Santiago, Chile, in June.
Japan is pushing for an end to the IWC ban on commercial whaling that began in 1986.
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