The IWC has been divided between pro-whaling nations led by Japan and Australia's anti-hunting faction since a moratorium on commercial whale hunting was imposed 22 years ago.

Japan has repeatedly threatened to bolt the IWC if it does not allow commercial whaling.

During the group's first work session on Monday, member states discussed a proposal to focus on the IWC's future instead of voting on resolutions related to whaling.

The commission in 1986 imposed a worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling, an agreement allowing a limited number of whales to be killed only for research purposes.

In 1992, the IWC relaxed the moratorium, allowing some commercial hunting of minke whales. But in subsequent years Iceland and Norway have ignored the ban and resumed commercial whaling.

Environmental groups including the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Greenpeace warned ahead of the meeting that Japan wanted to catch whales in four of its coastal areas for non-scientific ends.

On the eve of the meeting, some 2,000 protesters gathered in a park here in Chile's capital city, with the throng massing in the shape of a giant whale to demonstrate their support for keeping the moratorium.

Japan was expected to press on with its efforts to resume commercial whaling.

The Japanese delegate to the IWC, Joji Morishita, said his country wants to "resume, under international control, sustainable whale hunting of abundant species."

"Many species and whale stocks are abundant, are growing and are recovering from past over-fishing," Morishita said.

Japan kills some 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants. Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium altogether.

The week-long IWC meeting in Santiago is to also review whale and dolphin populations, and the creation of a whale sanctuary in the south Atlantic.

The idea of a whale reserve was put forward by the "Buenos Aires Group," a union of several Latin American countries backing cetacean research and conservation.

It seeks to establish an ocean domain in which whale hunting is always prohibited and whale-watching tourism encouraged.

"The importance of creating a sanctuary in the south Atlantic will provide protection against the indiscriminate hunting of key species and allow whale-watching in the area, for instance of species like humpback" whales, said Beatriz Bugeda, from the IFAW.

For the sanctuary proposal to be adopted, it has to garner 75 percent of the votes. A previous attempt failed to reach that bar.

The Buenos Aires Group comprises Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

Chile created its own whale sanctuary on Monday in a 5.3 million square kilometer (two million square mile) area.

"No cetacean can now be hunted in our territorial waters," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said after signing a law creating the reserve.

The IWC adopted a progressively more modern stance since the commission was launched more than 50 years ago, as most species have seen their numbers reduced by over 80 percent during the industrial hunting era.

After the 1986 ban, however, the IWC relaxed the worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling in 1992, and in 2006 it narrowly approved a non-binding motion declaring that the moratorium "is no longer necessary."

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