Japan and Australia said Wednesday they were doing everything they could to diplomatically resolve an emotionally charged dispute over whaling, though officials` remarks showed divisions remained deep.

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 `it is a difficult issue between our two countries` but stressed that `we continue to apply all diplomatic means` to address the disagreement.

He told reporters he and Nakasone both believed `that the disagreement over whaling (should) not become an issue that is out of proportion to the fundamental strength of the (bilateral) relationship.`

Nevertheless, Smith said, Australia was determined to `press the point` about its opposition to whaling.

A Japanese foreign ministry official privy to the discussion confirmed that both countries were employing diplomacy in the row.

He also affirmed that Smith had sought to distance the Australian government from militant environmentalists who have vowed to stop the Japanese 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,` the official said.

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.

Smith said that, if Japan`s interest in the whales was genuinely for scientific purposes, `you don`t need that to be lethal.`