Norway, until now the only country to openly conduct commercial whaling, on Wednesday hailed Iceland's decision to resume the controversial practice after a 16-year suspension.
The Icelandic government announced on Tuesday it would allow its whalers to hunt 30 minke whales and nine fin whales, primarily for export purposes.
The fin whale, the second biggest whale after the blue whale, is on the endangered species list, but Reykjavik insisted that the quota would not hurt what it termed "abundant" stocks in the North Atlantic.
An International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling has been in force since 1986. Iceland left the IWC in 1992 but rejoined in 2002, saying it would not be bound by the moratorium.
"There are very good reasons to authorize the hunt," Karsten Klepsvik, Norway's representative to the IWC, told AFP.
Iceland's decision "helps normalise the whaling issue", he said.
Norway has authorized whalers to hunt 1,052 minke whales in the 2006 season, the biggest quota allowed since the Scandinavian country decided to resume the commercial hunt in 1993.
But Norwegian whalers have failed to fill their quotas for several years in a row, citing poor weather conditions, the high price of petrol and a saturated market for whale meat.
Opponents of the whale hunt say the latter shows a lack of interest for whale meat.
Considered poor man's food after World War II, whale meat is now rarely eaten in Norway and the industry employs only several dozen people.
According to official estimates, there are close to 70,000 minke whales and some 25,800 fin whales in the North Atlantic.
In June, the IWC narrowly passed a resolution declaring that the 20-year-old moratorium on commercial hunting was "no longer necessary". However, a 75 percent majority is needed for the moratorium to be overturned.
Japan, which carries out whaling for what it claims is scientific research, declined to comment directly on Iceland's decision but said it supported commercial whaling.