A UN court ruling that the Japanese government must halt its whaling programme in the Antarctic has been welcomed in Australia and New Zealand.

The International Court of Justice ruled that the programme was not for scientific research as Japan claimed.

Supporters of the ban say they are "delighted". Japan said it would comply with the judgement, but was "deeply disappointed".

The move was welcomed by activists, who have called Japan's programme "an illegal whale hunt"

Australia brought the case to the court in 2010. Wellington supported its case.

Announcing the judgement on Monday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said that Japan had killed around 3,600 minke whales since 2005 under its Antarctic whaling programme, known as JARPA II.

While JARPA II could broadly be characterised as "scientific research", the scientific output from the programme was limited, and Japan had not sufficiently justified the whaling quotas it had set, the ICJ said.

(Source: BBC)