The one good thing immediately coming from it is that Japan pledged not to seek commercial whaling quotas in the immediate future, and also offered to discuss its current scientific hunt in the Antarctic.

Sue Lieberman, director of the global species programme at the environmental group WWF, said: "No-one's going to change anyone's mind; Japan isn't going to suddenly say 'I'm sorry about whaling,' nor are the anti-whaling countries going to say 'we're sorry, we're wrong, we think whaling is great. But we're seeing a willingness of governments to say 'just a minute - can we work this out?'"

The IWC agrees with Japan's deputy whaling commissioner Joji Morishita that dialogue had been markedly more constructive than the confrontation usually seen at annual IWC meetings, and that fundamental divisions remained.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, New Zealand's whaling commissioner said "This is the beginning of a shift in the behaviour of the IWC. It's a new culture for the organisation, and I don't think there's any resistance to any of it."

The three outside experts that had been called in helped with the talks.

Sources:

BBC News

The Age