The video was posted on a website by Japan's main whaling body to support its allegation that the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise had deliberately rammed the factory ship Nisshun Maru last Sunday.

The video showed the Arctic Sunrise moving steadily forward before hitting the Nisshin Maru, with Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research charging that "it was a deliberate action to get media coverage".

In response, Greenpeace said the footage "clearly shows the 8,000 ton Nisshin Maru bearing from port to starboard across the bow of the 1,000 ton Arctic Sunrise, moving much faster than the Greenpeace ship."

"According to international maritime law, the starboard vessel, the Arctic Sunrise had the right of way.

"We fully expect an official investigation to concur with the Greenpeace version of the event, as Lloyd's Register did after a similar ramming incident in 1999," said Greenpeace Australia chief Steve Shallhorn.

Greenpeace activists on Thursday tried to deliver a letter protesting whaling in the Southern Ocean to Japanese government delegates attending a climate change conference in Sydney, but were blocked by police.

The International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 but Japan has continued hunting for what it calls scientific research.

Japan, however, makes no secret that the meat from the hunt winds up on dinner plates.

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