Australia tells India it will not sell it uranium

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Australia's new Labor government told India's nuclear envoy Shyam Saran on Tuesday it would not sell uranium to New Delhi unless it signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), reversing a decision by the previous government.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Saran, architect of a deal with the United States to provide nuclear power aid to India while allowing it to continue nuclear weapons production, that Canberra would not agree to exports of uranium to India.

"We went into the election with a strong policy commitment we would not export uranium to nation states who are not members of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Smith said after the meeting. Labor won office in November 2007.

Saran was made special envoy for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to build international support for the Indo-U.S. pact among the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which includes Australia.

The suppliers group sets export controls governing trade of civilian nuclear material and technology to prevent exports being used to make nuclear weapons.

Saran last year convinced Australia's former conservative government to end a ban on uranium sales to India, overturning a policy of selling the fuel only to NPT signatories.

Australia's new government plans to reinstate the ban unless India agrees to sign the treaty. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year said selling uranium would pull the rug from under the NPT.

"The position that the government made clear in the run-up to the election is our position," Rudd's Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in Canberra on Tuesday.