Australian PM backs uranium sales to India

The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, says she favours overturning a ban on sales of uranium to India as a means of strengthening relations with one of the world's fastest growing economies.

For more than 30 years, Australia has refused to sell uranium to India because India had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but Gillard says it is time to change the policy.

Lifting the ban would bring Australia in line with the US, which signed a civilian nuclear deal with India in 2008.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas reports from Sydney.