Tokyo will not yield to foreign pressure to stop it from whaling, a fisheries official said after Australia stepped up a campaign against Japan's annual hunt in the name of scientific research.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard took the unusual step of intervening personally in the issue.

He wrote to counterpart Junichiro Koizumi to urge Japan to scrap plans to include species considered endangered among the whales to be hunted.

But Japan's Fisheries Agency, while not commenting on plans to kill more whales near Australian waters, indicated Tuesday that the whaling would continue, claiming it is done for scientific research.

``Our position on research whaling will not change just because of foreign pressure,'' said Takanori Nagatomo, deputy director at the Far Seas Fisheries Division of the agency.

``We have been engaging in research whaling to collect scientific data so we can resume commercial whaling,'' he said.

Nagatomo claimed that the agency has not been under pressure from Koizumi's office or from the Foreign Ministry.

Japan, where whale meat is considered part of traditional cuisine, reluctantly accepted a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission.

But it resumed hunting in 1987 using a loophole that allows ``research whaling'' and selling the meat on the market - a practice condemned by environmentalists as commercial whaling in disguise.

Japan says lethal research is necessary to obtain accurate data on whales' ages, eating habits and other details, as well as to prove its view that such whale species as minkes are thriving and consuming valuable fish stock.

Tokyo's representatives are set to tell the IWC at a meeting starting this month in South Korea that it intends to nearly double its annual catch of minke whales - currently set at 440 - in the Antarctic Ocean.

It also aims to catch the larger humpback and fin whales, considered endangered by the World Conservation Union.

In his letter to Koizumi, Howard challenged the Japanese claim that it needs to expand whale killing for research purposes.

``Given that non-lethal methods exist for scientific research, Australia believes that there is no basis for killing whales,'' wrote Howard.

He noted that 1.6 million tourists flock to Australian shores to watch whale migrations each year.

Environment Minister Ian Campbell said on ABC radio that Australia is prepared to raise the issue ``at levels that it's never been raised before'' and ``we won't stop until we achieve success.''

Howard agreed recently to dispatch 450 troops to guard Japanese army engineers in southern Iraq, despite domestic opposition to the move.

He also visited Tokyo last month and said relations between the two countries have never been closer, but that ``good friends should always feel free to disagree.''

Japan is also Australia's biggest export destination, and Canberra is pushing for a free-trade deal with Tokyo. Australia ranks fourth as a supplier of imports to Japan, and bilateral trade is worth about A$39 billion (HK$229.9 billion) a year.

But Japan and other pro-whaling nations have become increasingly frustrated by what they see as a growing anti-whaling slant to the IWC's annual meetings, especially after the 2004 session ended with a small but significant victory for countries that want to maintain the whaling ban.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS