Thursday, March 30 2006 16:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Sydney: China today (Mar 30, 2006) supported India's cooperation with other countries for nuclear power generation but said that non-proliferation protocols should be followed.

"India is a friendly neighbour of China, which approves India cooperating with other countries in nuclear power generation," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told 'The Australian' newspaper in an interview.

Australia, with 40 per cent of the world's uranium reserves, is a potential leading partner in supplying uranium to India as it will be to China when Wen, who is arriving in Australia on Saturday, signs two ground-breaking agreements next week.

While approving India's cooperation with other countries for nuclear power generation, the Chinese Premier said that relevant parties - including, by implication, Australia - should honour their obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which limits uranium sales to other signatories. India has not signed the NPT.

"The peaceful use of nuclear energy for power generation is an important means to develop clean energy and reduce pollution, especially the emission of greenhouse gases. That is why many countries are going in for nuclear energy and have entered into cooperation in this field," he said.

Australia, meanwhile, will send a delegation to New Delhi and Washington to seek out details of a civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement struck by US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh three weeks ago which could pave the way for the eventual sale of uranium by Australia and other US allies to India, the paper said.