Japanese officials and environmentalists blamed each other yesterday as nations failed to reach a deal to curb whale hunts by Japan, Norway and Iceland which kill hundreds of whales every year.

The 88 nations of the International Whaling Commission held two days of intense closed-door talks in Agadir, Morocco, on a proposal to ease the 25-year-old ban on commercial whaling in exchange for smaller kills by the three countries which claim exemptions to the moratorium on hunting for profit.

About 1,500 animals are killed each year by Japan, Norway and Iceland.

Japan, which kills the majority of whales, insists its hunt is for scientific research - but more whale meat and whale products end up in Japanese restaurants than in laboratories.

A key sticking point appeared to be that the agency declared a whaling sanctuary in the Southern Ocean south of Australia in 1994 but Japanese ships hunt freely there because the agency has no enforcement powers.

Australia has already launched a complaint against Japanese whaling at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the UN's highest court.

Acting IWC chairman Anthony Liverpool told an open meeting yesterday that "fundamental positions remained very much apart".

"After nearly three years of discussions, it appears our discussions are at an impasse," said chief US delegate Monica Medina.

Japanese whaling commissioner Yasue Funayama said her country had offered major concessions to reach a compromise and blamed anti-whaling countries which refused to accept the killing of a single animal.

"We must rise above politics and engage in a broader perspective," she said.

Anti-whaling countries were seeking to end Japan's hunting forays into the Southern Ocean sanctuary, ban the international trade in whale meat and to set firm quotas for the whaling nations for the next 10 years.

The proposed deal would let Japan kill 400 whales in the southern sanctuary for the next five years, which many countries thought was too high and which Japan saw as a major concession.