Australia not to sell uranium to India till it signs NPT

Melbourne, Sept 8 (PTI) Australian government will not
sell uranium to India despite welcoming Nuclear Suppliers
Group (N.S.G.) decision to end the 34-year long embargo on
nuclear trade with India, official said.

"However, Labor is committed to supplying uranium to
only those countries party to the N.P.T. Australia will
therefore not be supplying uranium to India while it is not a
member of the N.P.T.," Australian trade Minister Simon Crean
was quoted as saying in 'The Australian' newspaper report
Monday.

Labor party welcomed the decision by N.S.G. as
strengthening the global security of nuclear facilities, Crean
said.

However, the federal Opposition claims Labor's policy was
hypocritical and said Foreign Minister should use his next
visit to India to announce a new uranium policy.

"Foreign Minister Stephen Smith should use next week's
visit to India to announce a new uranium export policy for New
Delhi," Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Robb said
Sunday.

While critics of the Vienna announcement said the
decision would undermine the non-proliferation efforts, Robb
said Canberra needed to support India in efforts to produce
greenhouse gas-free electricity.

"One of the first foreign policy acts of the Rudd
government was to renege on a decision by the Howard
government to help India supply greenhouse gas-free
electricity to its growing population by providing uranium
under an agreement being negotiated between the U.S. and
India," he said.

"Since that time, the Rudd Government has been humiliated
into supporting the US-India agreement at meetings of the
International Atomic Energy Agency and the N.S.G. which
effectively condoned the sale of uranium to India by other
countries around the world," he added.