Prime Minister Julia Gillard has set the stage for a showdown with her party's Left at Labor's national conference by back-flipping on the ALP's opposition to selling uranium to India.

In an opinion piece published in Fairfax newspapers this morning, Ms Gillard argues the move would strengthen Australia's relations with India, which possesses nuclear weapons but is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

She says selling uranium to India for peaceful purposes will broaden Australian markets and increase jobs.

"We must, of course, expect of India the same standards we do of all countries for uranium export - strict adherence to International Atomic Energy Agency arrangements and strong bilateral and transparency measures which will provide assurances our uranium will be used only for peaceful purposes," she wrote.

"[We] must be prepared to confront difficult questions about maximising prosperity and the strength of our relationships in our region of the world."

Labor policy prohibits selling uranium to any country that is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the move will face opposition from the ALP's Left faction.

But pressure has been mounting to change the policy, with Resources Minister Martin Ferguson and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd both in support of selling uranium to India.

India refuses to sign the treaty because it wants to retain the nuclear option to defend itself against nuclear-armed neighbours, Pakistan and China.

Mr Ferguson says India is not a rogue nuclear nation.

"The international approach to India has changed dramatically with the Nuclear Suppliers Group decision of 2007, led by the United States, to actually sell uranium to India," he said this morning.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 52 seconds 4 m 52 s Martin Ferguson speaks to AM Download 2.2 MB

"We can sell uranium as a nation to countries such as China and Russia, but under our existing policy, which is outdated, it actually is a hangover from the 1970s ... we can't currently sell uranium to India, the biggest democracy in the world, 1.109 billion people, which I might say, 400 million live below the poverty line."

He says the move is about "normalising" Australia's relationship with India.

"India could purchase uranium from a range of countries, but they are desirous, at some point, of being able to purchase uranium from Australia," he said.

Sorry, this video has expired Stephen Smith on plans to sell uranium to India

"At the moment, we say to India, 'Yes, you can cooperate with us, for example, on defence, on customs, fighting against drugs, combating international terrorism ... but we don't trust you to actually handle safely Australian uranium'.

"It's about time we fronted up to the fact that India is a responsible nation. They have a desire to actually assist their community, to actually get out of poverty, with 40 per cent ... having fewer than 12 hours electricity per day.

"At the moment, I might say, 70 per cent of their energy actually comes from coal-fired power. The main thing they wanted to talk to me about last week was, 'Can you actually just find us more coal, thermal and coking coal?' This decision is also important from a climate change point of view, nuclear power is baseload reliable clean energy."

Mr Ferguson says India will still be required to negotiate a detailed protocol with Australia in terms of the safe handling and accountability of Australian uranium, with a proviso that it is only used for energy generation.

"That will be the policy position put by Labor at the national conference under the leadership of Julia Gillard. If that is ratified by the national conference, that will be the approach we take as a nation in terms of our negotiations with India over this complex issue," he said.

"In my opinion the party will again back the leader on this occasion ... because this is about modern Labor fronting up to a process of evolution in terms of actually looking forward, in terms of complex, hard political debates."

But Labor senator and Left faction convener Doug Cameron has told ABC News Radio he remains opposed to such a move.

"I would assume the majority of the Left would support that position," he said.

Sorry, this video has expired Greens senator Christine Milne on uranium exports

Greens leader Bob Brown says he is very concerned about the prospect of Australia selling uranium to India in the middle of an arms race.

"This is a clear plan by Julia Gillard to reverse Kevin Rudd's decision and to go along with the George W Bush decision to supply nuclear materials to India despite the fact it hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," he said.

"One would expect it will have the support of Tony Abbott. It will be Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott really feeling the same way here, although the Australian people won't agree with that.

"Certainly a great number of Labor voters are going to be appalled by the idea of Julia Gillard taking up this option."

Senator Brown says the move is not about the Government distancing itself from the Greens.

"It's about moving across to take up the conservative territory and to, through Martin Ferguson, help multinational and foreign mining companies make billions of dollars in the coming years at the expense of regional and global safety," he said.

"There's no doubt uranium, through this process, will end up in the stockpile of nuclear weapons in India.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 20 seconds 3 m 20 s Bob Brown speaks to AM Download 1.5 MB

"This is a country which has now got intermediate-range missiles, which is developing a fleet of nuclear submarines with nuclear weapons. It's going to add to the nuclear arms race by countries in our own regions, making Australia so much less safe."

The Australian uranium industry has refused to buy into the debate, saying it is a matter for the Federal Government.

The chief executive officer of the Australian Uranium Association, Michael Angwin, says his industry has not lobbied Labor on the issue.

"We think that the government of the day, the Australian government of the day, is in by far the best position to make a decision on the countries to whom we should export," he said.

"And we have confidence whoever is the government of the day will take into account all the matters that need to be taken into account when making decisions about to whom we export."



Mr Angwin says any new exports would be a significant boost to Australia.

"Australia's uranium exports vary between three quarters of a billion dollars and a billion dollars a year, and any country which has planned a large expansion in its nuclear industry, like India, would be a very significant customer for Australia," he said.

The Australian Conservation Foundation, which campaigns against uranium mining, says Australia cannot rely on assurances that India won't use Australian uranium to free up local supplies for its nuclear weapons program.

"India is a nuclear armed state that is involved now in a nuclear rivalry with Pakistan, there is a regional arms race, and India has made no secret that it wants to access foreign sources of uranium so it can free up local sources of uranium for its weapons program," the Foundation's Dave Sweeney said.