Bush briefs Australia PM on India nuclear deal

CANBERRA, Mar 21: U.S. President George W. Bush has briefed Australian Prime Minister John Howard on a U.S. nuclear deal with India in a move seen as groundwork by Canberra for a possible policy change to allow uranium exports to India.

The pair discussed the deal after Bush called to pass on his sympathies over a tropical cyclone that devastated parts of northern Queensland state.

The agreement, reached earlier this month, will see India receive U.S. nuclear technology in return for separating its military and civil facilities and opening civilian plants to inspections.

India wants to buy uranium from Australia, which has more than 40 percent of the world's known reserves of the mineral.

But Canberra maintains it will not sell to countries, such as India, that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Howard said he discussed the nature of the agreement with Bush and the reasons why the United States had entered into it and the advantages of having India's civil nuclear capacity placed under international inspection.

''We both agreed that was a very significant step forward and we both of course agreed that India is going to bulk much larger in the affairs of the region because of the enormous economic growth that country is enjoying,'' Howard told reporters.

A political analyst said Howard could be signalling a policy change. ''My read on it would be, yes, (Howard) is paving the way for a possible change of policy. Whether he does or not depends on how people react to it,'' Monash University political analyst Dennis Woodward said.

BEIJING WANTS URANIUM

Howard had already discussed the deal with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visited Sydney late last week.

Howard said at the time he would send a team of officials to India to find out more about the deal with the United States, but added there would be no immediate change in Canberra's policy.

''Obviously, like all policies, you never say never,'' he said.

Washington has said it will not push Australia to supply uranium to India, which conducted a nuclear test in 1974 and in 1998 and declared itself a nuclear weapons state.

Canberra is negotiating a nuclear safeguards agreement with Beijing, allowing it to sell uranium to help meet China's rapidly growing energy market.

''I would definitely see us selling uranium to China before we'd count on selling it to India,'' Woodward said.

Australia requires countries to agree to a separate nuclear safeguards agreement before it will export uranium.

China is expected to build 40 to 50 nuclear power plants over the next 20 years, while India is looking to boost its nuclear power industry, which currently accounts for only three percent of energy production.

Australia has 19 nuclear safeguard agreements, covering 36 countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Mexico, Japan, Finland and South Korea. It has only three operating uranium mines, which are owned by BHP Billiton and General Atomics of the United States.

REUTERS