CANBERRA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Australian will send an armed fisheries patrol ship to shadow a Japanese whaling fleet near Antarctica in a move which could lead to an international court challenge, the government said on Wednesday.

The icebreaker Ocean Viking, used by Australia for customs and fisheries patrols, would leave for the Southern Ocean to follow the Japanese fleet, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Environment Minister Peter Garrett told journalists in Canberra.

Aerial patrols will also shadow the Japanese fleet, and Australia will lead a formal international diplomatic protest, Smith said.

Japan's whaling fleet plans to hunt 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and, for the first time in 40 years, 50 humpback whales for research over the Antarctic summer. (Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by David Fox)

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