Sydney - Big game hunters would be allowed to bag 25 mature saltwater crocodiles a year in the far north of Australia under plans outlined Wednesday. "It's an industry, and we can have a look at it," Northern Territory Environment Minister Alison Anderson told reporters in Darwin.

But Anderson has rejected calls for a cull that would cut the crocodile population from around 80,000 to half that number.

The clamour for action came after three crocodile attacks on people in three months, two of them fatal, and warnings of more to come as crocodile numbers rise on the outskirts of Darwin and the city expands.

"We live in a croc-infested territory," Anderson said. "They will kill today, they killed yesterday and they will kill tomorrow."

Relatives saw a 20-year-old man taken by a crocodile a week ago at the Daly River, 150 kilometres south of Darwin. He had been drinking before the predawn attack and went swimming in a well-known crocodile haunt.

More worrying for officials was the death last month of 11-year-old Briony Goodsell. She was swimming with friends near her home on Darwin's fringe when she was taken.

Anderson said a cull was "not practical or effective" and instead advocated the exclusion zone around Darwin be tripled in size. Crocodiles found within the zone are trapped and either killed or used as stock in crocodile farms.

The Northern Territory government had proposed earning money by allowing visitors to hunt crocodiles before, but the federal government vetoed the enterprise - and is likely to do so again.

"The idea of getting foreign tourists to come over and to pay lots of money just to shoot one crocodile, I think a lot of Australians will find that repugnant," Humane Society International spokeswoman Nicola Beynon said.

Crocodile hunting was made illegal in 1971. Since then, the reptile's numbers have come back from a low of 3,000 and more are venturing further up waterways.

"Suddenly, big salties are turning up where we haven't seen them before," said Graeme Webb, the far north's top crocodile expert. "It's become a real problem because in other areas where crocodiles are more prominent, everybody knows they are there and take precautions." (dpa)