MELBOURNE - Back from India, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Nov 19 faced flak from the opposition which said not selling uranium to New Delhi was a “colossal missed opportunity.”

“We are one country with the largest reserve of uranium in the world and when we were in government we agreed in principal to sell uranium to India, subjecting very stringent safeguard,” said the deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop.

“We were confident that Australian uranium would be used for peaceful purposes in India, particularly to expand their nuclear power generation program,” she added.

In an interview to a TV channel she said that Australia’s loss would be Canada’s gain as Ottawa appeared ready to fulfill the Indian demand for nuclear fuel.

“Now this announcement that Canadians have lifted the ban on selling uranium to India is a colossal missed opportunity for Australia because Canada is our competitor in terms of exporting uranium.”

“They will no doubt seek to fill Indian market now it is a lost opportunity for us on commercial bases.”

“I am concerned about the labor government’s hypocrisy on this issue. They have banned uranium sale to India, yet Kevin Rudd says climate change, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, one of the greatest moral economic, environmental challenges of our age,” she said.

“India is a developing country with a large population with huge energy needs. Surely the best way we could help India reduce it’s green house gas emission would be to help it to expand it’s low-emissions nuclear power,” she added.           (PTI)