Australia sent the customs ship, the Oceanic Viking, to the Japanese whaling ship in a bid to end the stand-off involving the activists of the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

"Two Sea Shepherd activists who intruded onto the Yushin Maru No 2 and have been in custody on the ship were handed over to the Oceanic Viking chartered by the Australian government," Hideaki Okada, a whaling official at the Fisheries Agency in Tokyo, told AFP early Friday.

The activists -- Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35 -- were detained Tuesday after boarding the harpoon ship to protest Japan's whaling programme.

US-based Sea Shepherd, a militant offshoot of the environmentalist movement Greenpeace, strongly opposes Japan's plan to kill some 1,000 whales in the Antarctic Ocean this season.

And after learning the two men had been released, Sea Shepherd's executive director Kim McCoy vowed to continue the protest.

"The moment we get them back on board we plan to resume what we came here to do, which is enforcing international conservation law," McCoy told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"Now more than ever it's imperative that we get right back on track immediately and go out and intervene against the illegal activities of the Japanese fleet."

McCoy added the group's Steve Irwin vessel expected to pick the men up from the customs boat within a few hours.

"I've since spoken with one of the hostages who's no longer being held hostage, on board the Oceanic Viking, and he confirmed that they're both completely safe," she said.

Tokyo denies the claim the men were 'hostages', saying they had been treated well, given food and drink, and the whaling ship had been keen to hand them over safely earlier.

"They're on the Oceanic Viking and they're just going to give them a place to sleep until we can pick them up in the morning at a rendezvous point," McCoy added.

Australia initially dispatched the Oceanic Viking to monitor Japan's whaling as part of Western governments' campaign to stop the hunt.

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, has pressed for the group to agree to give up its harassment of the Japanese whaling fleet.

Tokyo exploits a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling to kill the animals for what it calls scientific research, while admitting the meat from the hunt ends up on dinner plates.

The confrontation with Sea shepherd had forced the Japanese fleet to suspend whaling and drew attention to efforts by activists to halt the annual hunt for good.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had earlier Thursday urged calm and the safe return of the two activists, saying Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was in constant contact with the Japanese government to arrange the handover.

Tokyo had disputed the militant group's contention that the whaler had captured the men.

Shipborne activists from Greenpeace had also been pursuing Japanese whalers to prevent them making catches.

Although relations have remained cordial between the respective governments, Australia's Federal Court on Tuesday ordered Japan to stop hunting and killing whales anywhere around its coastline or off Australian Antarctic territory.

However, the court noted that unless the Japanese whalers entered Australian jurisdiction where they could be seized, there was no practical way the order could be enforced.

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