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Howard upbeat on possible Australian nuclear deal with China
AFP
CANBERRA
Petroleumworld.com 03 28 06Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday that "very good progress" had been made in negotiations on opening Australia's vast uranium reserves up to China and that a deal could be signed during a visit next week by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
The two countries began negotiations early last year on Australian demands for a nuclear safeguards agreement to ensure Australian uranium does not find its way into Chinese nuclear weapons.
"We have made very good progress," Howard said of those talks during a joint press conference in Canberra with visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"It's possible that the discussions could be satisfactorily concluded so that something could be said or signed when the Chinese premier visits Australia next week," he said.
Australia has some 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves and has been keen to increase exports to fuel China's rapidly expanding nuclear power industry.
A senior Chinese official in Beijing said Monday the two governments were poised to sign two deals, one on exports of Australian uranium to China and another on Chinese involvement in uranium exploration and mining in Australia.
Liu Jieyi, head of the foreign ministry's North American and Oceanic Affairs Department, told reporters two draft texts had been completed and would likely be signed during Wen's four-day visit, which begins Saturday.
Liu stressed the agreements would cover the "peaceful use of nuclear energy" and would be in line with safeguards laid down by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
During two days of meetings and speeches in Canberra, Blair and Howard have repeatedly stressed the strategic importance of helping the rapidly emerging economies of China and India achieve energy security.
The two countries now rely on polluting coal- and oil-fired power stations and their demand for resources is stretching world energy supplies and pushing up prices.
Both Blair and Howard suggested nuclear power would offer a cleaner and more sustainable source of energy for the Asian giants.
At Tuesday's press conference, Howard did not rule out lifting a ban on selling uranium to India imposed over New Delhi's refusal to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
While the government is currently "not contemplating" a change in policy, he said, Australia is sending a delegation to India and the United States next month to examine details of a new nuclear agreement between those two countries.
That deal, signed during a visit to New Delhi by US President George W. Bush, gives India access to US nuclear technology in exchange for it separating its civil and military atomic programs and placing a majority of its reactors under international inspection.
AFP 28 03 06 0157 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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