all falling into place for alliance (uranium artic

CANBERRA, March 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush
has briefed Australian Prime Minister John Howard on a U.S.
nuclear deal with India in a move seen as groundwork by Canberra
for a possible policy change to allow uranium exports to India.

The pair discussed the deal after Bush called to pass on his
sympathies over a tropical cyclone that devastated parts of
northern Queensland state, a spokesman for Howard confirmed.

The agreement, reached earlier this month, will see India
receive U.S. nuclear technology in return for separating its
military and civil facilities and opening civilian plants to
inspections.

India wants to buy uranium from Australia, which has more
than 40 percent of the world's known reserves of the mineral. But
Canberra maintains it will not sell to countries, such as India,
that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"My read on it would be, yes, (Howard) is paving the way for
a possible change of policy. Whether he does or not depends on
how people react to it," Monash University political analysts
Dennis Woodward said.

A spokesman for Howard said the prime minister wanted to know
more about "how the deal would work". Howard had already
discussed the agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice when she visited Sydney late last week.

Howard said on Friday he would send a team of officials to
India to find out more about the deal with the United States, but
said there would be no immediate change in Canberra's policy.

"Obviously, like all policies, you never say never," he said.

Rice said on Thursday that Washington will not push Australia
to supply uranium to India, which conducted a nuclear test in
1974 and in 1998 and declared itself a nuclear weapons state.

Canberra is negotiating a nuclear safeguards agreement with
Beijing, allowing it to sell uranium to help meet China's rapidly
growing energy market.

"I would definitely see us selling uranium to China before
we'd count on selling it to India," Woodward said.

Australia also requires countries to agree to a separate
nuclear safeguards agreement before it will export uranium.
Canberra is negotiating such a deal with Beijing to allow it to
sell uranium to help meet China's rapidly growing energy market.

China is expected to build 40 to 50 nuclear power plants over
the next 20 years, while India is looking to boost its nuclear
power industry, which currently accounts for only three percent
of energy production.

Australia has 19 nuclear safeguard agreements, covering 36
countries, including the United States, France, Britain, Mexico,
Japan, Finland and South Korea. Australia has only three
operating uranium mines, which are owned by BHP Billiton
, Rio Tinto and General Atomics of the
United States.
((NUCLEAR-INDIA-AUSTRALIA, reporting by Michelle Nichols,
editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Reuters Messaging:
[email protected]; +61 2 6273 3700))

(c) Reuters Limited 2006
REUTER NEWS SERVICE
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.