The group of experts who attended the two-day meeting that ended Tuesday in Lisbon said they sensed a growing consensus among countries on reducing the number of whales killed and creating a South Atlantic whale sanctuary.

However, Japan is still reluctant to accept an outright ban on whaling, they said, and governments have given no public signs that an agreement may be near.

The experts gathered in Lisbon are not directly involved in the negotiations they surveyed.

The International Whaling Commission, a world body that regulates the hunting of many species of whales, has been trying to settle a protracted dispute between anti-whaling countries including Australia and the U.S., and countries that want to continue whaling, such as Japan.

Peter Bridgewater, a former leader of the whaling commission, said there now was "a confluence of good vibes" among nations, providing "a much better opportunity than in the past decade or so" to reach an agreeement.

"There could be what I would call a golden moment to try and resolve some of the outstanding issues," Bridgewater told reporters a day after chairing the Lisbon meeting organized by the U.S.-based Pew Environment Group.

Bridgewater noted, however, that Japan "for cultural reasons would like to continue to whale in very small amounts."

No Japanese representatives attended Wednesday's news conference. Japan is now allowed to kill about 1,000 whales a year under a scientific research program permitted by the whaling commission.

Environmentalists argue the program contravenes the commission's prohibition on commercial whaling. Japan insists that certain whale species are plentiful enough to be hunted without threat of extinction.

In a statement, the Lisbon meeting urged governments to employ "a higher level of political muscle" to push for a compromise deal at the whaling commission's annual meeting in June in Portugal's Madeira Islands.

Jorge Palmeirim, Portugal's top official on whaling and an official at the commission, said officials on both sides of the dispute had recently shown greater flexibility in discussions, but he did not provide details.

"It's clear that it's going in a very good direction because the issues that we are talking about are painful issues," Palmeirim told the news conference. "Until very recently, both sides were fighting for gain. For the first time, it seems like people are willing to take some pain."

Iceland and Norway also permit fishermen to hunt whales to sell for their meat. Neither country recognizes commission's rules.