[djevvy]

Iceland will maintain its new whaling quota of 150 fin and up to 150 minke whales this year despite international calls for it to reconsider the sixfold catch increase, the government said on Wednesday.

"It is our conclusion that the decision on whaling remains unchanged for this year," Fisheries Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told reporters, adding that no decision had been taken for the coming four years.

Seven countries - Britain, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States - sent a letter to the new government last week urging it to review the decision.

"We realise that this might lead to harsh criticism and even acts against Iceland and we will have to react to that," Sigfusson told AFP.

Prior to the announcement of the increased catch, Iceland, which pulled out of an international whaling moratorium in 2006 after 16 years, had a quota of just nine fin whales and 40 minke whales per year.

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries in the world that authorise commercial whaling. Japan officially hunts whales for scientific purposes, which are contested by opponents, and the whale meat is sold for consumption.