Chile's lower house of parliament approved a draft bill Wednesday prohibiting whale hunting on the country's coast.

The initiative seeks to make it illegal to kill, hunt, capture, transport, disembark, commercialize, store or perform any process of transformation on an alive or dead cetacean.

The motion, which received 57 votes in favor, also sets fines and a prison sentence ranging from three years and a day to five years for violators of the law, which will now be considered by the Senate.

The president of the Natural Resources Commission, Enrique Accorsi, hailed the passing of the initiative, which had been sent by President Michelle Bachelet on July 23.

"The approval of the project is a great step in the conservation and protection of whales, and it reflects a consensus because 99 percent of the population supports the creation of laws to protect and conserve the whales in Chilean waters," he said.

Accorsi also expressed hope that the project would be approved by the Senate before the meeting of the International Whaling Commission in London next month.

The idea is to arrive in the British capital with the project already approved, so that Chile can be the international vanguard in the protection of resources, he added.

Chile also hosted the recently concluded International Whaling Conference in its capital Santiago.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)