TONY Abbott will open up uranium exports to India if he wins power in the August 21 federal election.

The leader of the opposition told reporters that Australia’s relationship with India has been “badly mishandled" by the ruling Labor government.

Labor opposes uranium exports to India, which isn’t a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

“India is one of the coming super powers. It is obviously going to have a very important place in our region as well as in the world,” Mr Abbott told reporters.

“One of the best things that we could do to boost our relationship with the region is to sell them uranium.”

Key beneficiaries of a coalition election win, and subsequent push for uranium exports to India, are likely to include Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Rio owns 68 per cent of Energy Resources of Australia, operator of the Ranger uranium mine in Northern Territory, while BHP owns the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia.

Australia has almost 40 per cent of the world’s uranium resources and along with Canada is a major global supplier, exporting 9,339 tonnes in 2009 valued at $1.07bn.

India, among the fastest growing economies in the world, is looking to expand overall electricity generation capacity to bridge its peak-hour shortage, which widened to about 13 per cent in May from about 12 per cent a year earlier.

It is looking to non-conventional sources of energy such as nuclear, wind and solar to shoulder part of the energy burden caused by its expanding economy.