Their fears have been at least partially realised, and they are styling Japan's advances and the expanding pro-whaling bloc in the body as a "wake-up call" for their never-ending battle to save whales.

In a sign of the stepped up anti-whaling campaign that activists have promised, iconic group Greenpeace staged a beach landing protest in the final hours of the IWC talks, leading to the arrest of 10 of its members.

Four protestors waded ashore through clear blue waters from high-speed launches after leaving the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, waving banners in the shape of a whale fin bearing the slogan "R.I.P."

They were joined by another six Greenpeace activists already on the beach of the luxury resort hosting the talks.

Protestors were restrained with plastic cuffs and led away by St Kitts police officers.

"As far as we are aware they have entered the federation without the consent of an immigration officer," said St Kitts and Nevis police chief Robert Jeffers, adding that the protestors would be charged with infringing immigration laws, obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest.

Japan's pro-whaling coalition slumped to defeat in a string of early votes at the meeting, including on crucial issues like Japan's desire for secret ballots to be introduced to IWC meetings.

But the anti-whaling states couldn't hold the line, and 33 pro-whaling states Sunday mustered their first majority in more than two decades, by one vote, on a highly symbolic resolution on the future direction of the body.

Tokyo immediately set a controversial course for a return to commercial whaling, welcoming 37 IWC members to a special meeting to discuss reform plans.

The focus of Monday's session -- outside IWC auspices -- was restoring what Japan sees as the body's original 1946 mandate -- regulating sustainable hunting.

"We are not trying to exclude, or separate, or divide this organisation," said Joji Morishita, Japan's IWC alternate commissioner, at the talks in a dimly lit nightclub in the resort.

Japan called the meeting to discuss a date and venue for three days of formal talks -- outside the IWC and before its next annual meeting in Alaska -- for nations that support its reform drive, a process Tokyo calls "normalisation."

Environmental groups accused Japan of trying to take the IWC back 60 years, arguing that its thrust for commercial whaling had no place in the modern world.

"Regardless of the rhetoric and posturing here, very little has been achieved, either for whales or people this week," said Susan Lieberman, director of WWF's global species program.

Environmentalists, who believe Japan wants to stifle conservation efforts on the commission, slaughter more whales and chip away at the moratorium.

However, the moratorium, enforced in 1986 as one of the environmental movement's proudest achievements, is not in immediate danger, as it needs a currently unobtainable 75 percent majority to be overturned.

Japan abides by the moratorium, but conducts some "research" whaling through what opponents say is a loophole in the IWC charter, as does Iceland.

Norway ignores the moratorium all together. Around 2,000 whales are taken a year by the three nations.

Greenpeace makes a splash with whaling arrests

Police in the Caribbean state of St Kitts and Nevis on Tuesday arrested 10 Greenpeace activists after a seaborne protest on the final day of world whaling talks.

Five protesters waded ashore through blue waters and breaking surf from high-speed launches after leaving the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, waving banners in the shape of a whale fin bearing the slogan "R.I.P."

Their beach protest, which drew a crowd of television cameras, was joined by five other Greenpeace activists who were already on the beach of the luxury resort hosting the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting.

Protesters, wearing shorts and blue vests with the phrase "Defend Our Oceans", were restrained with plastic cuffs after staging a sit-in protest on the beach, before being led away by St Kitts police officers.

St Kitts and Nevis police chief Robert Jeffers said the protesters would be charged with infringing immigration laws and obstructing a police officer.

"As far as we are aware, they have entered the federation without the consent of an immigration officer," he said.

Greenpeace spokesman John Bowler said later that the protestors would be detained overnight and appear in court on Monday morning.

Most were in a large room together, but Greenpeace spokesman Mike Townsley was being held alone in a small cell, and could also face charges of resisting arrest, Bowler said.

Patrick Ramage, a member of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, another environmental group which opposes whaling, condemned the arrests.

"If they want to arrest people for criminal activity, they should be inside the meeting rooms," he said.

The protest came a day after Greenpeace earned a gentle rebuke at the IWC meetings over a collision between the Sunrise and a Japanese whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean in January.

A US intervention headed off a Japanese proposal which could have seen Greenpeace stripped of its observer status at the IWC's annual meetings, which have been dominated by a power grab by pro-whaling nations opposed to a two-decade-old moratorium on commercial whale hunts.

In the end, the IWC adopted a general resolution which did not assign blame for the incident or mention Greenpeace but did make clear that it did not "condone" dangerous protests at sea.

Each side blames the other for the January 8 incident in the Southern Ocean whale feeding grounds.

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