India to press Australia for uranium deal

AUSTRALIA: India will ask Australia to lift a ban on sales of uranium for its growing nuclear energy programme, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in remarks published Monday.

Singh, told The Australian newspaper in an interview that he would raise the issue in talks with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard. "I hope Australia will be an important partner in this. We are short of uranium. We need to import uranium and our needs will increase in years to come," he told the newspaper.

Howard said ahead of his departure from Australia on Sunday that the US-India pact would not immediately change Australia's stance, but appeared to leave open the possibility of a rethink in the future. "We're certainly not going to suddenly change our policy just because the Indians and Americans have reached an agreement," he said.

"We'll study it, and if there are things that should additionally be done that are in Australia's interests then we'll do them."

Sydney, Monday, AFP