CANBERRA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Australia will not reverse its ban on the sale of uranium to India and other countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Trade Minister Simon Crean was reported as saying on Monday. Australia's policy would not change, Crean told the Australian newspaper, despite the government's support for a weekend decision by the 45-nation Nuclear Supplier Group to lift a global ban on nuclear trade with India. "Labor is committed to supplying uranium to only those countries party to the NPT. Australia will therefore not be supplying uranium to India while it is not a member of the NPT," Crean told the paper. Australia is a member of the NSG. The group's one-off waiver paves the way for a controversial U.S.-Indian atomic energy deal, still to be ratified by the U.S. Congress. Washington says the fuel and technology deal would forge a strategic partnership with the world's largest democracy, help India meet rising energy demand in an environmentally sound way and open a nuclear market worth billions of dollars. Australia has 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves, but has consistently rejected India's pleas to be allowed to buy the nuclear fuel. Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith will come under pressure to reverse the policy during a visit to India this week. Smith's visit also follows a weekend state election in Australia which could see more uranium mined. (Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by Jonathan Standing)
A flood-affected boy eats inside a tent in a flood relief camp in Bathna village of Araria district in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, September 7, 2008. Authorities battling a ...
