Australia will consider Russia's actions in Georgia when it decides whether to ratify a uranium supply agreement, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.

A committee of Australia's parliament began a routine examination this week of the accord signed last September, Smith said. The agreement allows Russia to buy uranium from Australia and use it to make fuel for its nuclear power plants.

``When considering the ratification, the government will take into account not just the merits of the agreement but recent and ongoing events in Georgia,'' Smith said in an e- mailed statement. ``Once the committee has reported on the agreement, the government will make a decision on ratification at an appropriate time.''

Claims Georgia attacked Russian peacekeepers and citizens in the breakaway region of South Ossetia spurred Russia to send in forces on Aug. 8. Russia routed Georgia in a five-day war, leaving behind peacekeepers to protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region. It then recognized the two areas' independence, drawing condemnation from Western leaders.

Australia, the world's second-largest uranium producer with 40 percent of global low-cost reserves, signed a safeguards agreement with Russia in 1990 for the ``limited'' use of the fuel, Smith said. Australia entered a new agreement with Russia last September, which is the subject of the committee's inquiry.