Australia has set a deadline for Japan to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean by November this year, or face international legal action.

澳大利亚警告日本于今年11月之前停止在南极洋海域的捕鲸活动，否则日本将面临国际诉讼。

activists¹ and whalers to calm down" width="226" height="170" src="/upimg/100219/4_052245_1.jpg" />
NZ and Australia have urged both activists and whalers to calm down

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was still hopeful that talks with Japan would lead to a voluntary halt.

Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada is to visit Australia this weekend.

Despite a 1986 international moratorium²（暂停，中止） on commercial whaling, Japan kills hundreds of whales each year, ostensibly（表面上） for scientific research.

Blunt talk

Mr Rudd told the Channel 7 TV station that Australia would "work with the Japanese to reduce, through negotiation³, their current catch to zero".

"If that fails - and I'm saying this very bluntly（坦率地，迟钝地） ... - if that fails, then we will initiate⁴（开始，发起） that court action before the commencement（开始） of the whaling season in November 2010."

Australia has made such threats before but correspondents say the timing⁵ and assertive⁶（肯定的，独断的） tone of this statement - coming just one day before Mr Okada is due to visit - gives the words added weight.

The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says Mr Rudd has been criticised for backing away from（躲开，后退） an election promise to take international legal action against Japan for its annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean.

Mr Rudd is currently slipping in popularity polls and faces an election this year.

"Now, that is a direct honouring of the commitment I gave to the Australian people. And that is the right [way] to handle it with a friend and partner, Japan, which is also a very significant, long-standing economic partner as well," he said.

"That's the bottom line and we're very clear to the Japanese that's what we intend to do."