New Zealand said on Saturday it remained optimistic about the creation of a sanctuary to protect Antarctica's ocean wilderness, despite the failure of multi-national talks to agree the plan. While voicing disappointment, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said that consensus was building after proposals for two huge marine protection zones were knocked back at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). New Zealand and the United States had led a push for a Ross Sea Marine Protected Area (MPA) at the talks in the Australian city of Hobart, which ended Friday, but failed to win unanimous support from CCAMLR -- a group comprising 24 nations and the European Union. "The Ross Sea region MPA proposal continued to gather support at this year's CCAMLR meeting in Hobart.