Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Thursday he will carefully consider a parliamentary report recommending that Australia not move ahead with an agreement to sell uranium to Russia, in part because of the war in Georgia.

In a report presented to Parliament on Thursday, the Treaties Committee opposed ratifying a nuclear trade treaty with Russia until "further consideration is given to the potential ramifications for this agreement of recent political events affecting Russia."

Australia, which holds almost 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves, has had an agreement in place since 1990 to sell uranium to Russia. But that deal only allows Russia to enrich it before selling it to third countries.

A new agreement to sell uranium to Russia for power generation was signed last September by former Prime Minister John Howard and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The deal would bar Russia — like all Australian uranium customers — from using the nuclear fuel for military purposes.

Rudd said he had yet to study the new parliamentary report and would consult closely with foreign governments before deciding how Australia will respond.

"The global situation in relation to the Russian Federation is now complex as a result of what we have seen in Georgia," Rudd told reporters. "This is ... a very difficult challenge for the global order."

Russian and Georgian forces clashed in the breakaway province of South Ossetia last month, and Russia has ignored international demands for it to withdraw its troops. A tense cease-fire is in place after a war that killed hundreds and displaced 200,000.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith warned earlier this month that Australia might withhold approval of the new agreement if Russia failed to withdraw its troops from Georgia.

In its report Thursday, the committee set out a number of conditions that should be satisfied before Australian uranium is allowed to fuel Russia's growing energy needs.

The government should consult with the United States, Canada, Japan and European countries on whether problems of "Russian nuclear material being stolen" have been addressed, the report said.

The government must also be satisfied that Russia will not abandon the treaty or other nuclear treaties and that independent inspectors can verify that Russian civilian and military nuclear facilities are kept separate, it said.

The report cited an Australian magazine's interview with chess master turned Russian opposition politician Garry Kasparov.

"Should Australian uranium end up in the wrong hands — and it's not too far-fetched to suggest that Russia under Putin is already in the wrong hands — Australia will not be able to act innocent or to claim ignorance," Kasparov was quoted as saying in The Bulletin magazine last year.

The article forms part of an anti-war group's submission to the committee.

Five lawmakers on the 21-member committee issued a minority report recommending the treaty be ratified, saying Russia had demonstrated a commitment to disarmament and to its nonproliferation obligations.

Rudd's center-left government, which replaced Howard's conservative government at elections last November, has already canceled negotiations with India on uranium sales. Rudd insists that there will be no uranium trade unless India ratifies the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The previous government began negotiations in August last year despite India's refusal to sign that treaty.