Prime Minister John Howard is expected to discuss the issue, which aims to limit the possibility of spent fuel being used in weapons, with US President George W. Bush and other officials during a visit to Washington this week.

"This concept is just developing and, obviously, there's a lot more work to be done in terms of how the overall life cycle is managed of nuclear fuel," Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said Sunday.

"Obviously, there'll be a wide range of views, but we need to keep an open mind on all these issues if we expect to extract benefit from selling the produce (uranium)," Vaile told commercial television.

Howard has said he is interested in the proposal but added that Australia, which has the world's biggest uranium reserves, had not yet been asked to implement the plan.

"Everybody is just running ahead of themselves on this issue," Howard, who is already in Washington, was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"There's been some talk about certain proposals (and) I'll be interested to learn a little more about it.

"I have an interest in it, Australia has an interest in it, but we're not concerned about anything, we haven't been asked to do anything."

Australia's huge uranium reserves -- some 40 percent of the world's known deposits -- have become an increasingly sensitive domestic and foreign policy issue as demand grows from countries expanding their nuclear power production.

The government agreed in April to sell uranium to China after saying it had secured safeguards to ensure that the fuel is not used in weapons, but refuses to sell to India because New Delhi has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Australia does not use nuclear power itself, and Labor Party governments in Australian states have blocked the further expansion of the uranium industry by refusing to allow more than three mines to open.

But Howard has hinted that the federal government, headed by his Liberal Party, could intervene if Australia was unable to meet uranium demand from China, which experts say would double current exports of 20,000 tonnes.

However, the idea that Australia should take back radioactive nuclear waste from its own uranium is likely to strengthen the arguments of opponents of increased exports, no matter how lucrative they may be.

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