Australia: Japan has agreed to release two detained anti-whaling activists

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia said Wednesday that Japan has agreed to release two activists being detained going aboard a Japanese whaling ship near Antarctica, as whale hunters and defenders traded accusations of piracy.

The Japanese whalers accused the activists of attacking their vessel with bottles of acid and illegally boarding the Yushin Maru No. 2 on Tuesday, and denied claims the men had been assaulted and tied up on deck.

The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said the pair -- Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35 -- boarded the ship to deliver a letter demanding an end to the hunt, but had been roughed up and were being held against their will.

The standoff drew criticism from Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, whose officials contacted their Japanese counterparts late Tuesday to seek the release of the two activists.

"From the very first day I urged all parties in this matter to exercise restraint," Smith told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "It's quite clearly the case that restraint hasn't occurred here."

The event was a rapid escalation of the annual contest between the fleet that carries out Japan's controversial whale hunt and the environmental groups who try to stop them.

Smith said Japanese officials had promised to return Potts and Lane to the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin, though that had not been done by late morning.

Japan sent ships to Antarctica in November to kill about 1,000 whales under a program that skirts an international moratorium on whaling. Tokyo says the kill is for scientific purposes. The program is widely condemned as a front for commercial whaling.

Under intense international pressure, Japan abandoned its plans to include 50 humpback whales in this season's hunt.