Australia PM pledges to resolve whaling row with Japan

AFP, March, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) — Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called Japan a "core" ally, despite skipping Tokyo on his first major foreign tour, and pledged to resolve peacefully a bitter row on whaling.

Since taking over in December, Rudd has ramped up pressure on Japan over its whaling, sending a customs vessel to monitor the Antarctic hunt which is widely reviled by the Australian public.

In an interview published Wednesday in the Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Rudd said that relations with Tokyo remained "absolutely the core relationship for Australia."

Japan has insisted that whaling is part of its culture and uses a loophole in a global moratorium that allows killing the giant mammals for research.

"I am optimistic about resolving the issue diplomatically," Rudd told the Japanese-language daily. No English-language transcript was immediately available.

"I know it is a difficult issue to solve. I understand that there are ...