Australia welcomed a nuclear deal between India and the United States, but would not sell uranium to India under current policy, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday.
Howard, who will lead a business delegation to India on Sunday, said it was positive that India would allow international inspections at 14 of its 22 nuclear reactors under a landmark US/India civilian nuclear co-operation pact.
The US Congress must approve the agreement which would allow India to access US and other foreign atomic technology to meet soaring demand for energy, even though it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Howard said Australia wanted to learn more about the substance of the agreement between United States and India, but noted that Australia's existing policy ruled out sales of uranium to countries that had not signed the non-proliferation treaty.
"Nothing automatically flows from the agreement between the United States and Australia. That's a matter for those two countries. We will make our own judgement about what we do," Howard said in an interview with Reuters.
Australia has almost half of the world's known uranium resources and is keen to increase exports, with talks underway on an agreement to sell uranium to China.
The India visit will be Howard's first since 2000, and follows this week's visit by US President George Bush.
Howard will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other political leaders, with talks expected to centre on trade ties, the bilateral relationship and regional issues.
Two-way trade between Australia and India was worth A$9.4 billion in 2005, with a healthy A$6.3 billion surplus in Australia's favour, although far fewer business export to India than China or Singapore.
Howard said Australia had opportunities to increase exports of minerals and energy, information technology, as well as tourism and services for India's growing middle class.
Australia and India had much in common, including their association with Britain and the Commonwealth.
"We speak the English language, we have similar legal systems in many respects, we are both federations and of course we both play cricket," he said.
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