India seeks uranium supply from Australia

Praising Australia's role in ending India's nuclear isolation, India hopes that Canberra would reverse its policy of not selling uranium to New Delhi, saying it would help the country move to cleaner energy sources.

Despite Kevin Rudd-led government's policy on not selling uranium to a non-NPT signatory, Indian High Commissioner Sujatha Singh underlined India's expectation that Australia would change its policy.

"I would be less than candid if I did not express the hope that in the minerals and energy sector... A certain mineral resource which does not yet figure in the trading basket, will figure, and sooner rather than later," Singh said at a Minerals Council of Australian Conference in Canberra.

Among numerous reasons why it made sense, the High Commissioner cited environmentalists, who had pointed out that despite current concerns about carbon pollution, Australia exported coal to India but not uranium.

"(Uranium) would help India move to cleaner energy sources," she was quoted as saying in a AAP report.

Thanking Australia, the world's biggest repository of uranium and a key member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, for its support to India's nuclear deal with the United States, the envoy said: "Looking into the future, we hope that this support will be taken to its logical conclusion."