Australia moves to lift India uranium ban

SYDNEY: Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved Tuesday to lift Australia's controversial ban on uranium sales to nuclear power India in a bid to strengthen relations with the fast-growing economic powerhouse.

While Canberra exports uranium to China, Japan, Taiwan and the United States, India has been excluded because New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a prerequisite her Labor Party puts on sales.

But Gillard said it was time to change, with the subject likely to dominate the annual Labor Party conference in Sydney next month where any policy switch needs to be ratified.

Gillard said Canberra had pursued international diplomatic efforts to have India sign the nuclear treaty but the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, penned in 2005, changed that strategy.

Under that declaration, India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and abide by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. In exchange, the United States agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with the South Asian giant.

"It effectively lifted the de facto international ban on co-operation with India in this area," said Gillard.