According to the critics, U. S. President Barack Obama is breaking a campaign promise as his administration backs an effort to lift a 24-year ban on commercial whaling.

FOX News reported on Sunday that environmentalists, already unhappy with the administration's allegedly lackluster response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, say the president is going back on his campaign pledge to end the slaughter of whales.

FOX News also said that the administration is leading a push within the International Whaling Commission to lift the ban on whaling against Japan, Norway and Iceland, the three countries in the commission still hunting whales.

A new agreement will save whales by keeping the three countries from exploiting loopholes in the current moratorium, the White House has said, but environmentalists say they aren't buying it.

Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said, "That moratorium on commercial whaling was the greatest conservation victory of the 20th century. And in 2010 to be waving the white flag or bowing to the stubbornness of the last three countries engaged in the practice is a mind-numbingly dumb idea."

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. has also reported that Australia has announced it will take Japan to the International Court of Justice to try to end its "scientific whaling" program in southern oceans. (With Inputs from Agencies)