AUSTRALIA is under pressure to drop its ban on uranium exports to India days after an international moratorium on the sale of nuclear fuel to New Delhi was lifted.

Indian officials say they will push the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, for a change in the Government's stance when he visits the Indian capital for the first time this week.

Under Labor Party policy, Australian uranium is not allowed to be exported to India because it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

However, India was granted a waiver by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group on Saturday that will allow it to participate in global nuclear commerce even though it is not a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.

The Australian Government, which is a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, supported the waiver for India despite Labor's ban on uranium exports.

A senior Indian official told the Times of India that Australia's support for the waiver was inconsistent with its ban on uranium sales and that this would be taken up with Mr Smith.

"Australia's stand does not make sense now, as the waiver which [Australia] helped us acquire doesn't deny us the right to buy uranium from other countries," the Times reported the official as saying. "In any case, now that we have the waiver, we are not desperate. It would be as big a loss for them because we can import from countries like Canada and South Africa."

The supply group's waiver was a crucial step in the implementation of the landmark "123 Agreement" between India and the US that will give the Asian giant access to nuclear technology and fuel. India hopes the deal will be ratified by US Congress later this month. The Howard government said it would sell uranium to India if the 123 Agreement came into effect but the Rudd Government overturned that policy when it won office last November.

The "puritanical" position taken by Labor had "evoked considerable anger in New Delhi," the Times said.

Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research, said Australia now needed "better reasoning" for banning uranium sales to India, especially when it now allows yellowcake exports to China. "If Australia's objective is for its uranium exports [to be] only used for peaceful purposes, then India is a much better option than China," he said.

Before leaving for India yesterday, Mr Smith said the Government's ban on uranium sales to countries that had not signed the non-proliferation treaty would not change. The left wing of the ALP strongly supports the ban.

Some supplier group members, especially New Zealand, Austria and Ireland, opposed aspects of the India's waiver and it was only approved after long negotiations.