John Key

Wellington, May 28 NZPA - New Zealand will not join Australian legal action against Japan over Southern Ocean whaling until diplomatic avenues are exhausted, Prime Minister John Key and Foreign Minister Murray McCully say.

Australia today said it would initiate the action in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague next week.

The decision comes five months ahead of a deadline Australia set to determine an agreement with Japan over Southern Ocean whaling.

New Zealand's position has been to try to make progress through the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

"From New Zealand's perspective we want to continue to go down the diplomatic route," Prime Minister John Key told reporters.

"We believe that's the best way of seeing a reduction and the elimination of whaling. If the diplomatic route is unsuccessful, then we will make a decision about whether to join Australia."

Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the decision would be made in the next few weeks.

"New Zealand has been disappointed by the progress of diplomatic negotiations in the International Whaling Commission, and we have made it clear that the current proposal is not adequate," Mr McCully said.

"However we believe that there is still room to make progress before the IWC's annual meeting in Agadir (in Morocco) in June."

Recently IWC nations met to talk about a proposal to allow Japan, Norway and Iceland to openly hunt whales despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, but aim to reduce the total catch over the next 10 years.

Japan currently uses a loophole to kill whales saying it is for scientific research, while the other countries are not bound by the moratorium, as they did not agree to it.

Australia has ruled out backing the compromise saying all whaling in the Southern Ocean should be phased out within five years. New Zealand has said initial figures for whales to continue to be killed were far too high.

Mr Key said New Zealand was not convinced court action was the best option.

"If we thought a court case was clear cut and easy to win then obviously that might be the fastest way to do that, but the advice we have had is it's actually not."

New Zealand's representative to the IWC, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, recently said using the body could see an agreement where more whales would be saved, while taking a case to the ICJ could be counterproductive.

Australia had not asked New Zealand to join it in its bid but the countries' foreign ministers talked about the move last night.

The Labour and Green Parties said the Government should join the Australian action immediately.

Labour MP Chris Carter said diplomacy was not working.

"The legal case being taken by the Australian Government represents a real opportunity for whaling in the Southern Ocean to be ended once and for all," he said.

"Without action to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean it would seem likely that the clashes between protestors and whalers will only get worse and lives will be endangered."

New Zealander Peter Bethune is on trial in Japan after being arrested because he boarded Japanese whaling fleet vessel the Shonan Maru 2, seeking to make a citizen's arrest of its captain following a collision between it and his anti-whaling speed boat Ady Gil, in January.

Green MP Gareth Hughes said joining the court case was the right thing to do.

"The appeasement plan is a mistake. Court action is a better option that makes clear to the world where we stand."

Parliament's Foreign Affairs committee yesterday released its report into a petition started by Mr Carter and signed by 3475 people opposing all moves to restart commercial whaling.

The report said that there was no proposal to allow commercial whaling but the discussion was around quotas for catch limits.