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Much more work must be done before the International Whaling Commission can reach any agreement on limiting annual whale kills, according to New Zealand diplomat Sir Geoffrey Palmer.
"We're in the midst of a diplomatic crisis over differences in the IWC," Palmer said during an IWC meeting in Florida.
"This is a work in progress."
The issue was discussed at the meeting, but no action could be taken because only 33 of 88 IWC member nations were represented.
The IWC's annual meeting is scheduled for June in Morocco.
Palmer, a former New Zealand prime minister, says there was no agreement on the number of whales that would be taken annually under a compromise he is trying to negotiate.
Japan, Norway and Iceland are the only countries that now hunt whales.
Australia, New Zealand and other countries want to ban all whaling.
Palmer says if a compromise is to be reached, it must allow for some whaling over the next 10 years but at reduced levels.
"Or to put it another way, both sides would have to swallow a dead rat - never a happy event - and one calculated to disturb digestion.
"But it is clear to me as the facilitator of the (IWC) Support Group that unless the numbers of whales taken annually are significantly reduced, then there will be no consensus and no deal."
The World Wildlife Fund has issued a statement calling for all lethal taking of whales in established sanctuaries to be halted as part of any compromise.
It also calls for a ban on hunting of threatened whale species.
The WWF has also joined Greenpeace, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Pew Environmental Trust in calling for a ban on all whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary within a short period of time.
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