Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Monday the situation in Georgia would be taken into account when decide whether or not ratify the agreement on uranium deal with Russia.

    "When considering ratification, the government will take into account not just the merits of the agreement but recent and ongoing events in Georgia and the state of Australia's bilateral relationship with the Russian Federation," Smith told the parliament.

    He also said the government's concerns about the situation in Georgia had already been relayed to Russian officials.

    A federal parliamentary committee also heard on Monday that theInternational Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) had not carried out any inspections in Russia since 2001.

    The committee has been considering a deal struck by the former Howard government last year that would allow Russia to buy Australian uranium for civilian purposes under strict safeguards.

    But Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office directorgeneral John Carlson said it was unlikely Australian uranium wouldbe used by Russia in the production of nuclear weapons.

    "Australian uranium won't be used for weapons because Russia has such an enormous surplus there' s no reason why it would even think of doing so," Carlson said.

    "Diversion to nuclear weapons won't happen ... because Russia stopped producing fissile material for nuclear weapons 15 or more years ago. They're not doing it, they don't need to do it," he said.