New Delhi: Australia has not permanently shut the door on uranium sales to India but this is "not a pressing issue" at the moment, a security expert from the country says.

"Australia has shut the door for now but its possible (to open it)" after "a de facto NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) is created around India," Robert Ayson, who is here for the three-day Asian Security Conference that concludes Thursday, said.

"Once the 123 agreement, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards and the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) waiver is in place to create a de facto NPT around India then the issue could be looked at again, Ayson told IANS in an interview.

Ayson is the director of studies at Canberra's Australian National University (ANU), where he also takes classes at its Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

"Once all the elements are in place, it is then possible that the government (of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) will push the issue," Ayson maintained.

"At the moment it's a 'no' but the door could be pushed open. But at the moment, it's not a pressing issue," he added.

The government of prime minister John Howard that lost power in November had given its in-principle approval to uranium sales to India. It argued that it made little sense to ban uranium exports to India when it had agreed to ship uranium to China.

Rudd, then in the opposition, had vehemently opposed this, saying adequate safeguards were not in place. In January, Australia told India it would not sell uranium to India until New Delhi signs the NPT, officials said Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, speaking in Perth after a meeting with Shyam Saran, the special envoy of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said that the ruling Labor Party would stick by the policy it followed while in opposition.

"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 told reporters Jan 15.

Australia has 40 percent of the world's known reserves of uranium and is the top exporter.

Source : IANS