A group of U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers said Friday it has introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on President Bill Clinton not to support Japan's bid to gain a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council unless it stops whaling.
Sixteen congressmen sponsored the resolution, which needs majority support to be adopted in the 435-seat chamber, amid increasing global criticism of Japan's expanded whaling program.
"Japan's continued defiance of the International Whaling Commission's requests to halt its scientific whaling program undermines international efforts to conserve and protect the world's whale populations," the resolution says.
William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat who is a chief sponsor of the resolution, said in a statement, "Despite repeated protests from the United States and many other nations, the Japanese government recently proceeded with plans for scientific hunts of three protected species of whales in the North Pacific -- hunts which kill more than 500 minke, sperm and Bryde's whales each year."