Foreign affairs and defence ministers of the two nations also pledged to expand joint military exercises and to set up regular consultations between officers on disaster prevention, fighting terrorism and peacekeeping.

Japan and Australia said they would start discussions next year on a legal framework to share confidential security information.

"We came to agree that it's important to share confidential information between the two countries when cooperating on specific aspects of security," Japan's Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone told a joint news conference.

Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said: "We can now move forward in tangible and practical ways to ensure that we have closer defence cooperation."

The four ministers signed the accord in the second so-called "two-plus-two" meeting since Japan and Australia signed a landmark security pact in March 2007.

The pact was the first for officially pacifist Japan outside of its military alliance with the United States. For Australia, it was also the first security framework other than its alliances with Britain and the United States.

But relations between the two Pacific allies have been shakier since Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took over in November last year.

The centre-left leader has taken a tough line against Japan's Antarctic whaling, which is widely opposed in Australia, and sought to build ties with Japan's sometime rival China.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, addressing a think tank ahead of the meeting, said Australia sought "an enduring partnership" with Japan.

"We have a comprehensive economic, security and strategic partnership with Japan," he said. "We have a growing economic relationship with China. It is entirely possible for a nation-state to have a good relationship with more than one country and not impact adversely on another country."

In a joint statement, Japan and Australia also pledged to work together with mutual ally the United States and to cooperate with incoming president Barack Obama.

"The central importance of the United States is there for all to see," Smith told the joint news conference.

"We've agreed that the continuation of the trilateral strategic dialogue is very important just as we've agreed that the ongoing engagement of the United States in the Asia-Pacific is very important," he said.

But in a sign of festering disagreement, Australia said it was considering legal action against Japan over its annual whale hunt in Antarctic waters.

Australia is "continuing to push very, very hard in the diplomatic environment" for an end to whaling, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in Sydney.

An international moratorium on commercial whaling has been in place since 1986, but Japan kills hundreds of whales a year in the name of research, with the meat nonetheless ending up on dinner tables.

Japan says whaling is part of its culture but Australia says it is cruel and hurts its vibrant whale-watching industry.

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