The Australian Government said that it would formally ask the International Whaling Commission to ban the Japanese fleet from carrying out its annual catch in the Southern Ocean.

The proposal, which may be sent to the IWC as early as today, was issued on Sunday by Australia’s Foreign Minister and followed a prickly weekend of bilateral talks between Stephen Smith and his Japanese counterpart, Katsuya Okada.

Japan and Australia were able to see eye-to-eye on the traditionally thorny issues of nuclear non-proliferation and UN peacekeeping operations, but Japan’s persistent engagement in what it calls “scientific” whaling continues to rankle in Canberra. Mr Smith’s proposal to the IWC would be a phased ban on whaling in the Southern Ocean over what he called a “reasonable” amount of time.

Australia, in common with many other observers, remains unconvinced by Japan’s justification for whaling. Japan currently exploits a loophole in IWC rules that allow it to carry out its annual whale hunt as a scientific exercise.

The fact that almost all the whales caught are later sold as meat — along with a visible shortage of Japanese scientific research papers based on the annual hunt — has provoked accusations that Japan is engaged in commercial whaling of the sort banned in 1986.

Last week Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, issued an ultimatum to Japan, vowing to take international legal action should Japan’s annual whaling programme in the Southern Ocean not be shut down by November this year.

The discussions between the Japanese and Australian foreign ministers follow several months of bitter acrimony on the high seas, as anti-whaling protesters have harried the Japanese fleet and been met with fierce physical resistance. In one clash a vessel owned by the US-based Sea Shepherd activist group was sunk after a collision with one of the ships in the Japanese fleet.

Although both foreign ministers criticised the use of violence in anti-whaling protests, Australia has historically allowed Sea Shepherd vessels to dock in its harbour — a concession viewed in Tokyo as Australia’s tacit support for the cause.

At the political level Australia has significantly hardened its position on Japanese whaling. Mr Smith said yesterday that his country would file a complaint with the International Court of Justice and seek a ban there if the IWC were not able to settle the dispute itself.

Mr Okada described the comments as regrettable, adding that Japan would defend its right to continue “scientific” whaling in any legal context.