The [Australian] Government has rejected calls from a Pakistan Government official for Australia to sell uranium to the south Asian country. Pakistan's Minister for Religious Affairs, Muhammad Ijaz ul Haq, has raised the issue after Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer recently said Australia should consider selling uranium to power stations in India. Mr Ijaz ul Haq says it is a diplomatic issue and Pakistan should be considered alongside India.
But Mr Downer says its out of the question because Pakistan's two nuclear power stations are not monitored by the United Nations. "I don't think there's any prospect in the foreseeable future of exporting to Pakistan, unless Pakistan gets into some sort of a system of UN inspections and control over its two civil nuclear facilities and it comes to Australia and seeks a nuclear safeguards agreement," he said.
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