The Jiji and Kyodo news agencies, quoting officials at the Japanese Fisheries Agency, reported the resumption of Japan's so-called research whaling.

But Hideaki Okada, an official at the agency's whaling division, told AFP: "We cannot comment whether research whaling has been resumed out of consideration for the safety of the operation."

Japan suspended its operation on January 12 due to obstructive actions by anti-whaling environmental groups.

On January 15, two activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boarded a Japanese harpoon ship to deliver a protest, setting off a two-day standoff.

But low fuel forced boats from Sea Shepherd and another environmental group, Greenpeace, to return to port to refuel.

An Australian media report said Friday that the Australian coastguard saw the Japanese harpoonists kill five whales in one day after the protesters left the area.

Japan, which uses a loophole in a 1986 global whaling moratorium that allows lethal research, aims to slaughter about 1,000 whales this year in Antarctic waters despite strong opposition from Western countries and environmental groups.

It argues that whaling is part of its culture and accuses Western nations of cultural insensitivity.

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