Tuesday, July 25 2006 10:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Melbourne: The leader of the Opposition in Australia, Kim Beazley, has withdrawn support for a long- standing ban on new uranium mines in the country and instead suggested a policy of liberal mining and exports.

The Labor leader's personal stand is against that of his party which has opposed opening of new uranium mines for the past 22 years.

Beazely has also set out an alternative to Prime Minister John Howard's plans for Australia to become an 'energy superpower,' according to a National channel report.

The Opposition Leader said his change of position was aimed at 'lifting prosperity' but he remained totally opposed to nuclear power in Australia because it was not in our national interest.

In a speech to the Sydney Institute last night, Beazley formally announced he wanted to throw out the policy.

His declaration brings forward the debate on one Labor's most divisive issues, which threatens to split the opposition party during its national conference in April next year, only months before an election.

Labor party's environment spokesman Anthony Albanese has already vowed to fight Bleazley's proposal at the party national conference.

However, Beazley said he wasn't worried about a brawl within the party over the policy backflip.

"It is a question of the terms and conditions under which it (uranium) is sold and us (Labor) offering national leadership in a period of time in which the non-proliferation treaty is fraying at the edges and there's a big question mark over weapons of mass destruction internationally," he said.

He said if Prime Minister John Howard introduced a nuclear enrichment Australia, that would cause problems for the economy as well as the country's waste disposal.