Pakistan says if Australia sells uranium to India, it too should be eligible for exports of the product.

India's chief rival is also a nuclear power and, like India, a non-signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Islamabad says it is not against uranium sales to India but that it would be discriminatory if Australia did not also make it available to Pakistan.

Pakistan's High Commissioner to Australia, Abdul Malik Abdullah, says his country could use Australian uranium to boost its civilian nuclear power program.

"In the past when US-India [trade] has taken place, we feel that Pakistan was discriminated against," he said.

"We hope that this time, given our very strong and cordial relationship with Australia, Pakistan would not be discriminated against."

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Pakistan's atomic program began in earnest after India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974.

It tested its first bomb in 1998. It is also expanding its civilian nuclear power program.

Mr Abdullah says for this purpose Australian uranium would be very helpful.

"We are suffering huge power outages right now and Pakistan is expanding its civilian nuclear power, the nation's program," he said.

"So we have not made any requests for import of uranium from Australia so far, but we will like to [use] this option in the future if the need arises."

Proliferation

It is believed that is unlikely because Pakistan has a reputation as a rogue state when it comes to nuclear weapons.

Dr Andrew Davies, an expert on nuclear proliferation from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says Pakistan has been one of the worst-behaved countries in terms of promulgating nuclear technologies beyond its borders.

"There was a network run by the scientist AQ Khan that was responsible for some of the worst proliferation excesses that we've seen in the last decade or two," he said.

"So I think that's a good enough reason not to include Pakistan in the same sort of deal."

Like Pakistan, India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). New signatories must give up their nuclear weapons, which India refuses to do in light of its concerns about Pakistan and China.

Legitimacy

But India took a big step towards legitimacy by signing a nuclear deal with the United States in 2008 which paralleled the conditions of the NPT.

Critics say it undermined the NPT, but Dr Davies says it was a big vote of confidence that India is a reliable nuclear country.

"The US and Canada as well have made the judgment that India's behaviour is such that they can be brought into the fold in the international nuclear community," he said.

"I think that's a reasonable argument and I think if India was prepared to sign the NPT that would only strengthen that argument."

That is a view shared by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who today expressed her confidence in India when it comes to nuclear issues.

"When you look at other nations, you know whether it be Pakistan or Israel, they are not in that same class," she said.

Source of tension

Uranium exports would provide a big boost for Australia-India relations.

The ban has been a big source of tension. On a trip to Australia in January, India's foreign minister SM Krishna pointedly raised the issue with his counterpart Kevin Rudd.

"We certainly need uranium, but we respect Australia's position on this because it is not India-centric. Across the world, they have taken their decision and I would only plea," he said.

Those arguments would be over if the ban is lifted.

After the announcement by Ms Gillard, Indian government spokesman Vishnu Prakash said the uranium would be used to generate electricity and a change in policy would strengthen ties between the two nations.

"Australia and India are strategic partners. We have a relationship which is a broad-based relationship on trade, and economic relations are one of the important facets of the cooperation and also ongoing cooperation in energy."

Matter of principle

Brahma Chellaney, professor of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, says the debate has become a matter of principle.

"The issue was not so much supply from Australia, given the fact that India already has access to uranium from different suppliers, from Kazakhstan to Canada, and India at present has adequate stocks of uranium," he said.

"The issue became one of principle. The fact that Australia was willing to sell uranium to China without international safeguards in the sense that Australian uranium to China can easily go into weapons programs because there is no international inspection on the actual shipment after it arrives in China.

"On the other hand, Australia was prohibiting the sale of uranium to India. So this became an important issue, an irritant, in the bilateral relationship.

"And now that this issue is going to be resolved, I think the relationship can move forward."