Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday defended Australia's decision to sell uranium to India, despite the subcontinental country is not signatory to the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
This came after Howard on Thursday night had a telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh and reached an in-principle agreement on the issue.
The decision has attracted criticism from Australia's oppositions.
Howard on Friday said the safeguards on the agreement would have the same effect as signing the NPT.
"I can assure your listeners that the net effect of our safeguards agreement will be the same," Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
"It's a different approach and India has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But we believe that these arrangements will deliver effectively the same outcome," he said.
Howard said Australia and India would enter a bilateral safeguards agreement, and India would have to enter a similar agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"And the sort of conditions that are going to be imposed on India are the same as the conditions that are being imposed on countries like China and Russia and I think also France … and we've been selling uranium to France for many years," he said.
