"The South African position is completely opposed to Japan's and we will make that very clear," Horst Kleinschmidt, South Africa's commissioner on the IWC, told Reuters in an interview.

"History tells us that the hunt is primarily in southern hemisphere oceans," he said on Monday.

Japan has threatened to leave the 62-nation body if it votes against its expansion plans.

"It (the vote) will be very close," Kleinschmidt conceded, echoing comments last week by Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell, whose country also opposes Tokyo's proposal.

Japan can count on support from whaling nations Norway and Iceland and some developing countries but does not get much sympathy from rich western nations where environmental lobbies are strong.

It wants to increase its annual intake of minke whales to 935 from 440 and expand its hunt to include 10 fin whales a year for the next two years. By 2007-08, Japan wants to be allowed to hunt 40 fin whales and 50 humpback whales. "We are deeply involved in whale watching as an industry so we would like to see the most rapid increase in the number of whales," said Kleinschmidt, who is also IWC deputy chairperson.

"We don't have the numbers on our shoreline that we had 40 or 50 years ago because of overkilling in the past," he said.

BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY

South Africa -- keen to grow its tourist sector -- is a premier destination in the global whale watching industry worth as much as $1 billion annually, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Right whales and humpbacks frolic in picturesque bays along its coast, where they are often easy to view from shore.

Japan, where whale meat is a delicacy, abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international ban, but it began hunting whales for what it calls scientific research the next year. The meat ends up in gourmet restaurants.

Japan blames whales for declining fish catches, saying they consume such vast quantities that they have contributed to a huge drop in landings.

"We are sceptical about the science that the pro-whalers are putting forward," Kleinschmidt said.

He added that South Africa was mirroring an Australian effort to establish a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary by proposing one for southern Atlantic waters -- a proposal he said was co-sponsored by Brazil and Argentina.

Japan, which has supported bids by southern African states to loosen bans on the sale of elephant ivory, is often frustrated by Pretoria's refusal to reciprocate on whales.