On the eve of the most important international disarmament negotiations in a generation, the Rudd Government has foreshadowed uranium sales to Russia, which holds the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Late in 2008 the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) made a strong recommendation against a Howard-era Russia uranium deal proceeding, unless a number of important conditions were met.

"Instead of a reasoned rebuttal of the JSCOT report, the Government's response reads like a poorly worded press release from the uranium mining industry," said Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, spokesperson on nuclear issues.

"This feeble attempt to dismiss the entirely legitimate concerns of JSCOT is nothing more than Prime Minister Kevin Rudd clearing the decks on behalf of the uranium miners.

"The Rudd Government wants to open the uranium floodgates to Russia, which is currently proliferating nuclear technology into Iran and Burma, where journalists and anti-nuclear activists are intimidated and murdered, and where a nuclear weapons modernisation process is forging ahead.

"This is a new and shameful low for Prime Minister Rudd," Senator Ludlam said.