Japan said Wednesday it received assurances from Australia that it would seek a diplomatic solution to an emotionally charged dispute on whaling and avoid the use of force.

Japan`s fleet set off Monday to the Antarctic Ocean with plans to slaughter hundreds of whales despite strong opposition from Australia and New Zealand where whale-watching is a popular pastime.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith discussed the issue with his Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone ahead of a meeting of Asia-Pacific ministers and leaders in Peru`s capital Lima.

Smith said Australia would seek a diplomatic resolution and distance itself from militant environmentalists, who have vowed to stop the hunt by force.

`Foreign Minister Smith stressed that the Australian government is making a clear distinction from the illegal action taken by anti-whaling groups,` a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

However, when Nakasone asked Australia to crack down on anti-whaling activists, `there was no particular reply from the Australian side,` the official said.

During the last Antarctic hunt, activists from the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tracked down and hurled bottles of chemicals at the fleet to disrupt operations, leading Japan to label them `terrorists.`

Japan kills some 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in a 1986 global whaling moratorium that allows `lethal research` on the ocean giants.

Tokyo makes no secret that the meat ends up on dinner tables and accuses Westerners of insensitivity to its whaling culture. Only Norway and Iceland defy the whaling moratorium entirely.

On Monday, Australia unveiled a four-million-dollar (2.58-million US) scientific research program aimed at convincing Japan that it is not necessary to kill the mammals to study them.