AUSTRALIA and India have already begun a ''dialogue'' that is likely to canvass the sale of uranium to the nuclear-armed nation if Labor dumps its opposition to the trade at the party's national conference in December.

 

A confidential briefing note to Resources Minister Martin Ferguson in February says the dialogue ''may prove a useful avenue to communicate any policy shifts on the issue'' of uranium exports, which are banned to India under existing government and ALP policy.

 

''The dialogue could be elevated in the future as conditions allow agreement on exporting uranium to India,'' the note from Mr Ferguson's department says.

Mr Ferguson is expected to lead a push to ''modernise'' Labor's uranium policy at the conference, having declared earlier this year that India has a ''very, very good history of nuclear non-proliferation'' despite its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

 

He cautioned against reading ''too much'' into the briefing note, saying last night that his department was ''simply noting all potential eventualities''.

 

''The policy of the Australian government is clear - we will only supply uranium to countries that are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have signed a bilateral agreement with Australia,'' Mr Ferguson told The Age.

 

''This is not a policy specific to India; it applies equally to all countries. Any change in this policy would, in the first instance, require a change in Australian Labor Party policy.''

 

The revelation of a formal dialogue has alarmed the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which obtained the briefing note under freedom of information legislation.

 

''Opening up uranium sales to India would fuel the nuclear arms race under way between India and Pakistan, which has potentially catastrophic consequences,'' ICAN's Australian director, Tim Wright, said yesterday. ''The threat of a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan is real. Selling uranium to India runs counter to Australia's own security interests, and makes a mockery of its stated commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons.''

 

The briefing note was written after Mr Ferguson met Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna in January.

 

It proposed a ''resources supply security dialogue'' that, in the first instance, would involve only officials.

 

The note was dated February 7, three days before The Age revealed a cable leaked to WikiLeaks that asserted Mr Ferguson had told the United States embassy in Canberra that a deal to supply India with nuclear fuel could be reached within three to five years.

 

Under the existing government policy, uranium can only be exported to countries that are parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, have an additional protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and with which Australia has a bilateral nuclear safeguards agreement.

 

Mr Ferguson said the purpose of the proposed dialogue ''was neither to discuss nor to facilitate the export of uranium to India. Rather, its purpose would be to bolster bilateral country discussions on big-picture resource and energy questions, around supply and demand, prices and quality across a range of traded commodities,'' he said.

 

''An initial meeting was held earlier this year to scope out the potential parameters of such a dialogue.

 

''The question of exporting uranium to India was not raised at this meeting. There has been no subsequent meeting to this initial meeting and the next meeting is yet to be scheduled.''