Labor to consider uranium sales to India

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will back selling uranium to India but oppose gay marriage at the coming Labor Party conference.

Ms Gillard will urge the party faithful to reverse a ban on uranium exports to India.

India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Ms Gillard wrote in a Fairfax opinion piece it's time for Labor to broaden its platform and "strengthen our connection with dynamic, democratic India" in the Asian Century.

Ms Gillard said uranium sent to India would have to be accompanied by guarantees it not be used for weapons.

Meanwhile the Prime Minister has come out strongly against gay marriage but will support a conscience vote.

"My position flows from my strong conviction that the institution of marriage has come to have a particular meaning and standing in our culture and nation and that should continue unchanged," she wrote.

"I believe that in future it is appropriate that a conscience vote flow to Labor parliamentarians.

Her stand quickly came under attack from the Australian Greens, who said the prime minister was out of touch with mainstream Australia which believed it was time to give same-sex couples equal rights to marry.

"It is unfortunate that Prime Minister Gillard is so personally opposed to giving consenting adult couples the right to choose, regardless of their sexual identity," Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

For years the opposition has been calling on Labor to change its policy so Australia can tap into the lucrative and expanding Indian market and the Indians have also been pressuring the government.

Mining Minister Martin Ferguson has long supported changing the policy on uranium sales to India.

"International practice has changed," Mr Ferguson told ABC radio.

He said it was hypocritical for Australia to sell uranium to China and Russia but not to the largest democracy in the world.

"India is an emerging economy; it's one of the 10 largest economies in the world with huge purchasing power," he told ABC radio.

"India is not a rogue state."

Mr Ferguson said debate will be heated at the party's national conference.

"We are a party who have fronted up to many difficult challenges," he said.

"The party will back the leadership of the prime minister."

He said selling uranium to India would help lift people out of poverty.

"They are focused on extending access to electricity to their huge population 1.1 billion, with 40 per cent having access to fewer than 12 hours of electricity per day," Mr Ferguson said.

Mr Ferguson said nuclear power was clean energy and would help reduce carbon pollution emissions.

He would not reveal his personal view on gay marriage.