The UN body overseeing commerce in endangered wildlife has rejected a proposal from Monaco to outlaw international trade in eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna at a meeting in Doha, the Qatari capital.

Canada, Japan and several poorer nations opposed the measure, which was defeated by 68 votes to 20, saying the measure would help to destroy their fishing economies.

A vote on an EU amendment that weakened the original Monaco proposal, but still endorsed the ban, was also defeated by 72 votes to 43.

In order to pass, the measures would have needed the support of two-thirds of the nations present at the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

'Irresponsible' decision

Bluefin tuna stocks in the Atlantic and Mediterranean have crashed in recent years, with populations declining by up to 80 per cent from only three or four decades ago.

Japan, which buys three-quarters of the global catch of bluefin tuna, had lobbied extensively in Doha and elsewhere to block the proposal.

Tokyo expressed willingness to accept lower quotas but wanted those to come from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat), which currently regulates the trade.

Masanori Miyahara, chief counsellor of the Fisheries Agency of Japan, said that Japan is "very serious" about measures to conserve the Atlantic bluefin tuna and aims to "ensure the recovery of the stock".

Commenting on the vote, Sue Lieberman, policy director for the Pew Environment Group in Washington, said: "This is very disappointing and very irresponsible."

Lieberman said "the fate of tuna is now, once again, in the hands of Iccat" which has "demonstrated over a period of decades" its inability to enforce its own quotas for tuna catches.