SPY EYES

Pakistan says it should be allowed access to uranium from Australia, after a long-standing ban on exporting the substance to India was overturned.

Delhi welcomed Sunday’s vote by Australia’s governing Labour Party to drop the ban on the sale of uranium.

But Pakistan’s high commissioner to Australia responded by saying his country should get equal treatment.

Australia, which holds an estimated 40% of the world’s uranium, already exports it to China, Japan, Taiwan and the US.

It has traditionally banned uranium sales to countries that are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – this includes both India and Pakistan.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard persuaded her party that India was being so closely watched by the international community that the sale would be safe.

But Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Malik Abdullah told Australia’s ABC radio that past concerns about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear industry had now been set aside.

He said the case of AQ Khan, a Pakistani scientist accused of passing nuclear secrets to Iran and Libya, was in the past.

He denied Pakistan was a volatile state, unsuitable to receive uranium supplies. The Australian government has not responded to his comments.

Australia’s uranium industry has welcomed the policy shift.