TOKYO: Japan has suspended its first humpback whale hunt in seas off Antarctica since the 1960s, the government said on Friday, backing down in an escalating international battle over the expansion of its hunt.

Japan dropped the planned taking of 50 humpbacks - which have been off-limits to commercial hunting since 1966 - at the behest of the United States, the chair of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

"The government has decided to suspend hunts of humpback whales while talks to normalize IWC take place," Machimura said, adding the suspension will last a year or two. "But there will be no changes to our stance on our research whaling itself."