SYDNEY, Feb 20, 2010 (AFP) - A row about whaling hung over a visit to Australia by Japan's foreign minister on Saturday, coming a day after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned of legal action to stop Japan's annual whale hunt.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met with Rudd in Sydney and the pair had a "friendly discussion of a wide range of shared interests and a frank discussion on whaling," a spokeswoman for the prime minister said.
"They agreed on the deep and strong links that had been developed over many decades of friendly and mutually beneficial relations," she added.
Australia, along with New Zealand, has consistently opposed Japan's killing of hundreds of whales each year via a loophole in an international moratorium that allows "lethal research".
But Japan's new government has maintained its support for whaling, which has deep cultural significance for the Japanese people, since coming to power in September.
Okada made no comment to the press but a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said Tokyo hoped for a diplomatic resolution to the dispute which Rudd on Friday threatened to take to the International Court of Justice.
Before coming to Australia, Okada said Japan's research whaling was a legal practice carried out in public waters under the international convention.
His visit prompted a protest outside the gates of the Japanese embassy in Canberra at which about 30 people called for an end to the annual hunts in the Southern Ocean during which hundreds of the giant creatures die.
For the past six years the Japanese whaling fleet has also been pursued by protesters, militant environmental activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and this year clashes between them have been particularly fierce.
Australian officials have previously stressed that the whaling dispute would not harm the strong defence and business links between the countries which are major trading partners.
In addition to whaling, Rudd and Okada also discussed the strong complementarity between their two economies and agreed on the value in concluding discussions on a free trade agreement, the spokeswoman said.
"They discussed security cooperation, including the value of Australia and Japan working more closely bilaterally and multi-laterally, including in trilateral cooperation with the United States," she said.
Okada also met with Defence Minister John Faulkner who said he highlighted the strength of Australia's defence relationship with Japan during their meeting, during which they discussed a military logistics accord.
"This agreement... will allow Australia and Japan to better coordinate their cooperation in a range of areas, including disaster relief and peacekeeping," Senator Faulkner said in a statement.
Japan is considering presenting a bill to parliament to allow the sharing of services during overseas military missions but some lawmakers have urged the government to reconsider in light of the recent harassment of Japan's whaling fleet by the environmental activists.
"The Japanese government has made clear that the two issues are separate," a spokesman for Faulkner told AFP, adding that the governments hoped to begin formal talks on the agreement next month.
Okada will meet with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith in the western city of Perth on Sunday with North Korea, Australia's abundant energy resources, climate change and the strengthening of economic ties set to be on the agenda.
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