Australia and China signed deals yesterday clearing the way for Beijing to buy Australian uranium -- but only for use in its nuclear power stations.
Critics have charged that the deal, which officials said would not result in shipments for several years, paves the way for regional instability and environmental problems.
At a ceremony in Canberra, the two countries' foreign ministers signed off on two agreements intended to ensure that Beijing does not divert Australian nuclear fuel into its atomic weapons program.
China has been negotiating for months to buy uranium from Australia, which has 40 percent of the world's known uranium deposits.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) signed two pacts -- a Nuclear Transfer Agreement and a Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.
"These agreements establish strict safeguards, arrangements and conditions to ensure Australian uranium supplied to China, and any collaborative programs in applications of nuclear technology, is used exclusively for peaceful purposes," Downer said in a statement.
Australia refuses to sell uranium to nations that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The signing came on the third day of a visit to Australia by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
Wen held talks early yesterday with Prime Minister John Howard in Canberra and Howard paid tribute to the two countries' relations.
Howard said that while real differences remained between Australia and the communist government in Beijing, which is widely accused of human rights violations, these should not be a barrier to improving relations.
"Of all the ... major relationships Australia has with other countries, none has been more completely transformed than the relationship with China over the last 10 years," he said.
About 25 human rights protesters gathered outside the front of Parliament House in Canberra in opposition to Wen's visit, including a former Chinese diplomat who was granted residency in Australia.
About 100 members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement also protested China's rights abuses during Wen's visit to the parliament. Falun Gong supporters also protested in Sydney.
Minority Australian Greens party politician Christine Milne said Australia was putting money before human rights and global security by allowing communist China to import uranium.
"Make no mistake -- selling Australian uranium to China will make the world less safe," Milne said in a statement.
The Australian Conservation Foundation, a leading environmental group, also warned that the deal would jeopardize international nuclear safeguards by allowing China to divert uranium to its weapons program.
But Downer dismissed that argument.
"China has a nuclear weapons program whether we like it or not," Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio yesterday.
"It's not going to make the slightest difference whether we have this agreement with China or [not]," he said.
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