Australia's prime minister has set a November deadline for Japan to stop its research whaling programme that kills hundreds of the creatures every year in Antarctic waters, or face legal action.

Australia, a staunch anti-whaling nation, has long threatened international legal action.

Two years ago, it sent a ship to Antarctic waters to follow the Japanese whaling fleet and collect videos and photographs it said might be used as evidence in an international forum.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia would prefer to use diplomatic means to persuade Japan to end its hunt.

"If that fails, then we will initiate court action before the commencement of the whaling season in November 2010," he told the Seven Network.

"That's the bottom line and we're very clear to the Japanese, that's what we intend to do."

Japan hunts hundreds of mostly minke whales - which are not an endangered species - in Antarctic waters each year under its whaling research programme, an allowed exception to the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan, which critics say is the real reason for the hunts.

Mr Rudd's threat came on the eve of a visit to Australia by Japanese foreign minister Katsuya Okada. Whaling is expected to be a key topic of conversation when Mr Okada meets Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith this weekend.

Australia has said it could argue that Japan's whaling is illegal before the International Court of Justice at The Hague or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany.

The whaling is conducted in international waters, but usually within the huge patch of ocean that is designated Australia's maritime rescue zone and that Canberra considers a whale sanctuary.