Melbourne, May 24: India has expressed optimism that Australia will "eventually" sell uranium to it despite the new Kevin Rudd government deciding against supplying the yellow cake to New Delhi. "We do ask the Australian Government to take a practical and realistic view of this. Australia is not the only source of uranium for India but (it should be considered) in larger context of global warming and of the broader relationship between India and Australia," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath was quoted as saying by the media here. The previous John Howard administration was in favour of supplying uranium to India but the new government has said it would not allow the sale of the yellow cake as New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). Nath, who recently visited here, however, expressed optimism Australia will "eventually sell its yellow cake."

He said India was not formally asking Australia to sell it uranium because the Indo-US nuclear cooperation deal has not yet been finalised but hoped it will go through. "In India, things go through best on the basis of consensus. We are in the process of building a political consensus. Then we'll proceed with it," he was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'.

About the strong Australia-China ties, Nath said: "the China story is an old story now and the India story is a new story. China opened up early so obviously it has a head start. "But in all my discussions with Australians now people talk to me of China and India. Three years ago when I was here I was telling Australians the India business story but now they're already acting on it." The minister said "the India-Australia relationship will come as a very natural relationship. We share so many values, such as democracy, and so many institutions. We greatly value our relationship with Australia."