"The rejection was overwhelming. It was a clear statement from the international community to protect whales and not to reopen the exploitation that has brought them close to extinction," said Nicolas Entrup of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Last week Japan failed to overturn the two-decades-old moratorium on commercial whaling at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), threatening to walk out of the 77-nation treaty.

Conservationists accused Tokyo of seeking to revive commercial whaling through the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, which is meeting in The Hague.

"By calling for a review by the Animals Committee (of CITES), Japan and other whaling nations were trying to achieve a down-listing of whales through the back door," said Peter Pueschel, program manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

"And now the back door is closed," he said.

The CITES delegates also voted three-to-one to stop an assessment of finback whales that had been earlier approved in committee.

"Japan is very disappointed with the result. It is an issue of science. What we are asking for is simply the appropriate functioning of CITES," said Yoshikiyo Kondo, a member of the Japanese delegation.

The IWC slapped a moratorium on all commercial whaling in 1986, and CITES -- deferring to the whaling commission's authority -- included all of the species covered in its Annex 1, which prohibits international trade.

Japan has been campaigning to lift the whaling moratorium ever since it was imposed, and this year argued that its traditional coastal communities have the same right to pursue whaling as natives in the United States and Russia.

More than 20,000 whales have been killed since the two-decade-old moratorium. Japan kills about 1,000 whales a year under a provision for "scientific research." The whale meat is sold commercially within Japan.

Tokyo has also said it plans to kill 50 humpback whales from stocks that migrate along the Australian and New Zealand coasts into the tropical Pacific, drawing protests from governments and green groups.

The polarized IWC is split between pro-whaling nations led by Japan, Norway and Iceland, and anti-whaling members led by the United States, Britain, Australia, Brazil and New Zealand.

Neither group enjoys the three-fourths majority needed to make policy changes, leaving the forum mostly paralysed.

Japan has also said it would consider defying the whaling ban and "unilaterally" allow small coastal communities to launch hunts for the large creatures along its exclusive economic zone.

Other nations are already defying the ban, conservationists say.

Norway continues to kill minke whales in the North Atlantic through a legal "objection" lodged against the moratorium more than two decades ago.

"Whale conservation currently faces the biggest onslaught since the ban on commercial whaling was put in place," said Sue Fisher of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

"Not only do pro-whaling countries want to lift the ban on whaling, but they also aim to lift restrictions on international trade in whale products -- which, if allowed, would once again fuel an uncontrollable slaughter," she said.

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