video transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in New Delhi on Tuesday (October 16) that her government had changed its policy and was willing to start negotiations on selling uranium to India. "We have changed our party policy so that there is now no fetter for us on selling uranium to India. We have changed our government policy. The thing that would have to happen next is the negotiation of a comprehensive civil nuclear co-operation agreement," Gillard said. Australia had earlier refused to sell nuclear material to India because it had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). On a lighter note Gillard said that Australia's government would confer a major honour on India's cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar. "Cricket is of course a great bond between Australia and India, we are both cricket-mad nations," she said. Trade between the two countries is currently worth $20 billion and it is rising at the rate of 20% every year.