Ice thaws but little else moves at whaling meeting

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - An international whaling meeting sought on Saturday to calm tempers that have threatened to rip the organization apart, but made no substantive progress on key issues, one delegate said.

The inter-sessional meeting of the International Whaling Commission agreed to work more through consensus and reduce the use of voting which tends to force confrontation, but did not tackle the key issue of just what role the IWC should play.

"It was a lot more relaxed than I feared it might be. The presence of three top rank negotiators really helped focus minds," the delegate said on condition of anonymity.

"But it did not even go near the central question of whether the IWC should allow more whaling or become a serious conservation organization," the delegate added.

The meeting did call on anti-whaling campaigners to be less aggressive in their actions at sea -- singling out the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society whose boat has been involved in clashes with Japanese whalers in the Antarctic.

"It (the meeting) called upon the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to refrain from dangerous actions that jeopardize safety at sea, and on vessels and crews concerned to exercise restraint," it said in a statement.

"The Commission and its Contracting Governments do not condone and in fact condemn any actions that are a risk to human life and property," it added.

The three-day, closed door meeting was called after the last full meeting of the 78-member IWC in Anchorage, Alaska in May at which Japan threatened to quit in protest at being refused permission to allow limited coastal whaling to recommence.