Japan challenged over whaling

Japan is facing a further challenge to scale down its so-called scientific whaling in the north Pacific.

Officials from the United States and fourteen other countries, meeting in Tokyo, accused the Japanese of undermining the present moratorium on commercial whaling.

Japan has added the sperm whale and Bryde's whale to the large number of minke whales it kills each year, saying it's in the interests of scientific research.

President Clinton's commerce secretary, Norman Mineta, says a decision will be made soon about whether to impose trade sanctions against Tokyo over whaling.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service