Melbourne: Australia will not approve the sale of its uranium to Russia until it is assured that the nuclear fuel would not be sold to hostile countries like Iran and Syria for production of bomb, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in Sydney tomorrow for the APEC summit and Howard said he would use the opportunity to guide him "through the ropes" of an Australian uranium supply agreement.

"The conditions on our selling uranium is that we obtain the guarantees necessary to satisfy us that it won t go to Iran and Syria," Howard said on a local radio channel here. "We will be taking the Russians through the ropes in relation to any arrangement we have and we will be wanting to satisfy ourselves completely that won't occur," he said.

Howard also said Australia was not the only country to have a uranium resource, and "we have to sensibly use this valuable asset". " We will not be entering into arrangements if we have any doubt about the possibility of Russia selling it to any country like Syria and Iran," he said.