The divided, 80-nation IWC bought some time at its week-long annual meeting to see if it can bridge the gap between member states opposed to the hunts and those -- chiefly Iceland, Japan and Norway -- in favor.

The commission's annual meetings are usually tense, with Japan often threatening to leave the group over its refusal to lift a 22-year-old ban on commercial whale hunting.

"Up to now, the commission was in a stalemate, it was very divided and polarized," Chile's ICW delegation chief Cristian Maquieira told AFP.

"Instead, here in Santiago we've had an initial agreement by all, conservationists and whalers alike, to see if we can narrow the gap and seek out common solutions," Maquieira said.

As a result of the agreement, Japan said it would not put to a vote its proposal to allow it to resume commercial whaling in some of its coastal waters, and the 'Buenos Aires Group' withdrew its whale reserve initiative.

Maquieira said a working group comprising 20 countries would meet ahead of the ICW's 2009 meeting in Portugal's Madeira island, to draw up a list of recommendations.

The list, the Chilean ambassador said, will deal with "the most controversial issues," including whaling for scientific or "lethal research" -- a loophole Japan has been using to kill some 1,000 whales a year -- and the whale reserve, which Japan strongly opposes.

All sides have agreed to focus the current week-long meeting on the future of the ICW itself, which was created in 1946 to regulate whale hunting, as most species had seen their numbers reduced by over 80 percent during the industrial hunting era.

"The official position of Japan at this meeting is to support the chair's initiative to normalize the commission," Japan's ICW delegation spokesman Glenn Inwood told AFP.

"Japan has not put forward contentious proposals in the spirit of finding a solution to the difficult issues here," he said, adding that Japan has also reduced its "lethal research" whaling program.

"In the interests of compromise, Japan removed humpbacks from the research program to show it was willing to compromise," Inwood said.

The "Buenos Aires Group," comprising Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay, was equally conciliatory.

"What has been agreed is that nothing should be put to a vote," said group commissioner and environmentalist Enrique Iniquez.

The group seeks to establish an ocean domain in the South Atlantic where whale hunting is always prohibited and whale-watching tourism encouraged.

But the compromise solution was not to everyone's taste.

"We're surprised at the present turn of events," said International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Latin America director Beatriz Bugeda. "It's whale hunting that must be stopped, not the voting in the ICW."

"We're convinced the status quo can only benefit Japan," she said.

"While the commissioners take a year to negotiate, whales will continue to be killed in the southern oceans and around the world," said Greenpeace official Karen Sack.

Greenland, meanwhile, sought permission to add 10 humpback whales to its annual subsistence hunting quota. The IWC, which allows some subsistence hunting for indigenous communities, did not vote on Greenland's request.

In 1986, the IWC imposed a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling, which allows a limited number of whales to be killed only for research purposes.

In 1992, the IWC relaxed the moratorium, allowing some commercial hunting of minke whales. But in subsequent years Iceland and Norway have ignored the ban and resumed commercial whaling.

bur-pa/lt/ch

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