Wednesday, 15 August, 2007

Sydney Morning Herald

Uranium sales to India are fair way off, and would need to pass a number of hurdles before they could occur, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says.

The National Security Committee of Cabinet was expected to consider a proposal from Mr Downer to allow the fuel to be sold to India.

Mr Downer was not elaborating on the committee's discussion but it is reported to have agreed to the proposal.

The federal government is considering uranium sales to India despite the fact it is not signed up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

While Australian nuclear sales are usually conditional on the NPT, India may get an exemption due to a deal it struck with the United States, opening its civilian reactors to international inspections.

If any deal were to be struck, Mr Downer said it will be some time off, with a nuclear safeguards agreement to be negotiated, which would ensure that uranium would only go to civilian reactors that were subjected to an international inspections regime.

"If we're ever to sell uranium to India, it's a bit down the track," he told ABC TV on Tuesday night.

And he stressed the uranium would not find its way into nuclear weapons.

"India can always get uranium for its nuclear weapons program if they want to, it's just that they will never get it from Australia," Mr Downer said.

"If we were to go down the path of negotiating an agreement with India, we wouldn't sell uranium that could be used in any way at all for any military purpose."