Finally Australia has agreed to sell uranium to India for use in nuclear power plant even though New Delhi has not signed the Nonproliferation Treaty on atomic weapons (as reported in local newspapers in sydney).
A condition of the deal would be that inspectorts would be allowed to check the chain of supply of the nucler fuel to ensure none was siphoned off into weapons programs, as the Australian Newspapers said.
The national security committee of the federal cabinet reportedly made the decision late tuesday but it would not be annouced until Prime Minister John Howard has advised his India counterpart, Manmohan Singh.
Australia has the world's largest known reserves of uranium and the move would mark a major change in its policiy of refusing to sell the nuclear fuel to countries that have not signed the NPT. Howard's government, a strong supporter of US President George W. Bush's administration, has signaled a break with the policy after New Delhi finalized a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the US last month.
The deal would allow India to buy civilian nuclear technology while possesssing nuclear weapons, making it an exception under the NPT. Bush and Singh discussed the agreement on phone on Tuesday, the White House said, as officials looked for ways to overcome stiff opposition in the US Congress to the pact, which Bush sees as a key foreign policy victory (thanks to the diasporas too). Australia, meanwhile has been under pressure to sell uranium to India since agreeing last year to supply rival Asian giant China. India and China already have nuclear weapons but Beijing has signed the NPT while New Delgi has not. Both countries say they want Australia's uranium simply to fuel nuclear power stations to meet the soaring demand for electricity from their booming economies. But the main Australian opposition party, which is tipped by opinion polls to out Howard's government in the election this year, has condemned any deal with India. The decision to bypass the NPT would send the wrong message to the international community, Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd told repoerters. "It is a very bad development indeed when we have the possibility of the government of Australia stepping outside the nonproliferation treaty, saying it's OK to sell uranium to a country which isn't a signatory to the NPT".
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Australia tells India it will not sell it uranium
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKSYD182120080115
By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Australia's new Labor government told India's nuclear envoy Shyam Saran on Tuesday it would not sell uranium to New Delhi unless it signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), reversing a decision by the previous government.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Saran, architect of a deal with the United States to provide nuclear power aid to India while allowing it to continue nuclear weapons production, that Canberra would not agree to exports of uranium to India.
"We went into the election with a strong policy commitment we would not export uranium to nation states who are not members of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Smith said after the meeting. Labor won office in November 2007.
Saran was made special envoy for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to build international support for the Indo-U.S. pact among the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which includes Australia.
The suppliers group sets export controls governing trade of civilian nuclear material and technology to prevent exports being used to make nuclear weapons.
Saran last year convinced Australia's former conservative government to end a ban on uranium sales to India, overturning a policy of selling the fuel only to NPT signatories.
Australia's new government plans to reinstate the ban unless India agrees to sign the treaty. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year said selling uranium would pull the rug from under the NPT.
"The position that the government made clear in the run-up to the election is our position," Rudd's Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in Canberra on Tuesday.
Australia has 40 percent of the world's known reserves of uranium and exports to 36 countries. India has been lobbying Canberra for access to it.
Smith, speaking later to reporters after his meeting with Saran in Perth, said the Indian envoy was not surprised by Labor's opposition to the sale of yellowcake to India.
Australia is currently negotiating safeguards for A$250 million ($225 million) worth of uranium exports to Beijing.
Singh's deal with Washington was frozen after his government was unable to convince communist coalition allies the agreement was in India's interest and would not undermine its independent foreign policy stance.
But Indian officials this week said they hoped to complete talks this month with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna as a precursor to the U.S. deal going ahead.
Under the deal, India would agree to U.N. monitoring of some of its reactors in return for nuclear power assistance from the United States. The deal must be approved by the IAEA, the U.S. Congress and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. ($1=A$1.11) (Editing by Michael Perry and Alex Richardson)
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