Japan Ignores Whale Noises

"`We should not allow research whaling to be denied to a country authorised to do so by the international community," Japan's farm and fisheries minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi said.

Before the November 24 election, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labor party had called for the navy to be sent in to monitor Japan's whaling fleet.

Mr Rudd said he would make an announcement next week on what action the Australian government would take as the whaling season gets underway.

Rudd indicated Australian assets, interpreted to mean the military, could be used to gather evidence of whaling activities.

"(We have said) we would not rule out the use of Australian assets to collect appropriate data including photographic evidence concerning whaling activities," Rudd said in Bali, where he was attending a UN conference on climate change.

Japan's ships set sail last month on the country's largest hunt yet, which for the first time since the 1960s will kill humpbacks, one of the most popular animals for Australian whale watchers.

"We take seriously Australia's international obligations on the proper protection of whales," Mr Rudd said.