Australia's new Labor government has said it will scrap a landmark deal, negotiated by former conservative prime minister John Howard in his final months in power, to sell uranium to India for its nuclear energy programme.

The sales hinged on the implementation of a civilian nuclear deal between New Delhi, which has nuclear weapons, and Washington.

After a meeting with his Indian counterpart in Canberra, Smith said it was Australia's policy not to sell uranium to countries which were not signatories to a global nuclear non-proliferation pact, such as India.

"The Australian Labor Party has a long standing position which is well known that we don't export uranium to a country which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," he told reporters in Canberra.

But Smith said Australia would consider its attitude to uranium sales if India's agreement with Washington to buy civilian nuclear technology reached the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

"We will bear in mind the views and the arguments and the importance of the issue to India," he said.

India's Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee said he respected Australia's position but that much depended on the success of negotiations with the US.

"Naturally if the entire process is completed, the nuclear trade with India is permissible as per the international arrangements, then and then only, the question will come," he said.

"I have come to Australia not with one issue of getting uranium from Australia because we are aware of the position of the Labor Party."

Australia has the world's largest known reserves of uranium.

Smith meanwhile said Australia needed to develop its relationship with the south Asian giant because it had been under-appreciated for at least 25 years.

"Occasionally we have gone in fits and starts like a Twenty20 match," he said, in reference to the shortest form of international cricket.

"Now we need to make sure we... take our relationship with India to a new level and to put our relationship with India amongst the first order of our international partnerships."

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