New Australian govt won't supply uranium to India

New Delhi: The Indo-Us nuclear deal is suddenly in the limbo again with partner countries now beginning to walk away.

Australia's new labour government has told India that it will not sell uranium to it, unless New Delhi signs the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.

The message was conveyed in Canberra by the new Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith to India's Special Envoy on the nuclear deal, Shyam Saran.

"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 was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Kevin Rudd's labour government is reversing the stand taken by the John Howard government which had agreed to make an exception for India.

Australia has 40 per cent of the world's known reserves of uranium.

Saran was made special envoy for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to build international support for the Indo-US pact among the 45-nation.