TRADE Minister Simon Crean strongly defended the Rudd Government's decision not to sell uranium to India yesterday after the ALP Left was accused by one of India's most respected newspapers of being "much like our own communists and peaceniks".

Mr Crean, the first member of the Government to visit India since the election, described the editorial in The Indian Express as "strident and over the top".

The paper maintained that, "like anti-imperialism to our communists, (the) Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is a mantra to the Australian Left".

Mr Crean, who last night officially inaugurated the new chancery at the Australian high commission in New Delhi, told The Australian that while the ban on uranium sales was inevitable and well-understood by Indian officials, policy on the issue of India's civilian nuclear deal with Washington was evolving. This, he said, could lead to a different stand being taken by Australia within the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group when it meets in the next few weeks to discuss the issue.

India is at an advanced stage of negotiating a nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and it will then have to go to the NSG for a waiver that will allow it access to nuclear material and technology.

Decisions within the NSG are made on the basis of consensus, and Mr Crean held out the prospect that Australia could take a stand within the NSG that is seemingly in conflict with its refusal to sell uranium to the country. Asked whether it was a conflict to, on the one hand, refuse to sell uranium to India yet, on the other, to sanction the country's involvement in nuclear commerce by supporting a waiver within the NSG, Mr Crean said: "If you are tied (by the ALP conference's decision) not to sell uranium, that doesn't stop the NSG agreement proceeding. Our decision not to supply uranium does not stop us from taking a decision within the NSG. We need to work our way through our position.

"It will be based on the extent to which not just us but all members of the NSG see the degree of commitment (by) India to non-proliferation (in the agreement it reaches with the IAEA)," he added.

Asked whether he agreed with the ban on uranium sales, Mr Crean replied: "Yes, that's the policy of the ALP."

He added when asked whether there was any scope for a change in the policy: "Not at the moment."