Melbourne: Australian Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has pressed the new government to proceed with uranium sales to India to help it cut down on greenhouse emissions despite fears of instability in the subcontinent following the killing former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto.

India was a major emitter of greenhouse gases with growing energy needs, so "it's important that we proceed" with uranium sales, Nelson said.

In August, the John Howard government, which was ousted last month, had made an in-principle agreement to sell uranium to India on the condition that the uranium be used for peaceful purposes and that India sign a civil nuclear co-operation agreement with the United States.

However, country's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has vowed not to proceed with uranium sales to India until it becomes a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Despite this, Nelson yesterday repeated the Liberal Coalition's support for uranium sales to India as a way of combating climate change, The Age reported today.

"I don't believe Australia selling or not selling (uranium to India) will make any material difference (to the stability of the subcontinent)," he said.
Rudd could not on one hand agree to interim and long-term targets for cutting emissions without "assisting a nation like India, with burgeoning energy demands, to reduce its carbon footprint", the opposition leader said.

Nelson said it was important that Australia "proceed with the agreement" made with India by the Howard government.

Source : PTI