"This is a great victory," Ole Mindor Myklebust, a whaler and director of the export company Myklebust Trading AS, told Reuters. "It has been a battle full of surprises and disappointment."

Norway resumed commercial hunting of minke whales in 1993, ignoring a global moratorium, and said last year that it would allow exports to pro-whaling nations like Japan and Iceland for the first time since 1988.

Exports to Iceland had been stalled by a Norwegian demand that Reykjavik carry out DNA genetic tests to help Oslo track the meat. Japan, where whale meat is also a delicacy, is expanding its own "scientific research" whaling programme.

The DNA checking system "is now in place in Iceland and export licences will now be issued," Jan Pieter Groenhof, an adviser at the Norwegian Fisheries Ministry, told Reuters.

Myklebust, the only whaler to apply for a licence so far, said he was likely to export the frozen meat during the summer.

"We already have a deal. When we get a licence, we just need to reserve a place on a ship for transport," Myklebust said.

He did not disclose the price. A whale contains on average about 1,500 kg of meat and 500-700 kg of blubber. Icelanders mostly eat fried whale meat.

Iceland, which halted whaling in 1990, says that whales are abundant, are consuming its fish stocks and should be hunted within limits. It wants to resume hunting, but the International Whaling Commission has repeatedly vetoed its requests for a system of regulated catches.

Norway, ignoring the IWC, has set its own catch quota of 674 minke whales for this season.

The whaling lobby group High North Alliance said it hoped that exports to Iceland could pave the way for trade with Japan.

"Iceland is a relatively small market, but it's a start," said Rune Frovik, secretary at the High North Alliance.