By Elaine Lies TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Calling on members to overcome distrust, delegates began wrapping up a special meeting of the International Whaling Commission on Thursday with renewed criticism of a boycott by anti-whaling nations. Hours earlier, a fire broke out below decks on Japan's flagship whaling vessel, the Nisshin Maru, off the coast of Antarctica. One crew member was missing. Japan and like-minded nations that have gathered in Tokyo hope the meeting will build momentum to resume commercial whale hunts, shifting the IWC's focus to management from moratorium. Japanese officials have termed the three-day meeting a final attempt to save the commission by drafting proposals to submit at its annual gathering in May. Thirty-five of the IWC's 72 members are taking part. But some 26 anti-whaling nations -- including Australia, New Zealand and the United States -- boycotted, making prospects for dialogue within the polarised organisation slim and prompting criticism that they had chosen confrontation over compromise. "Participants suggested that if all IWC members had been present there may have been counter-opinions that could have resulted in a meaningful exchange of views," said a draft of the chairman's statement the meeting will issue later on Thursday. Delegates have said the IWC could be headed for collapse if it can't overcome distrust and confrontation. "Definitely it's not going in a good direction," Joji Morishita, Japan's alternate commissioner to the group, told Reuters on Wednesday. "Denial of dialogue is not good. You can say that the IWC has to change itself, or it could collapse." Others said the group was at a turning point. "We are in a bad situation," said Bruno Mainini from Switzerland, which supports sustainable resource use but opposes lifting the moratorium. "It's sad because we are talking about whales, spending a couple of weeks every year, and at the end we have nothing." Japan said on Wednesday it would announce details of a new coastal whaling proposal it plans to make at the commission meeting in May. Japan for years has asked for permission to hunt minke whales off its coast, without success. Last year it asked to take 150 minkes but the proposal was voted down. The IWC instituted a commercial whaling ban in 1986. But the group is now bitterly divided between countries that assert all whales need protection and others, like Japan, that say some species are now abundant enough for limited hunting. Japan, which says whaling is a cherished cultural tradition, began scientific research whaling in 1987. The meat, which under commission rules must be sold for consumption, ends up in supermarkets and restaurants, but the appetite for what is now a delicacy is fading. Some experts say Japan fears that limits on whaling will lead to limits on all Japanese fishing, a crucial food source in a nation with limited agricultural land. Others argue the whaling campaign is a form of nationalist diplomacy.
