Australia is paving the way to sell uranium to the United Arab Emirates.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has announced the government will begin negotiations with the UAE on a bilateral nuclear safeguards agreement, a precursor to uranium sales.
Mr Rudd said negotiations would take as long as necessary to get the right agreement.
"But we believe that the fundamentals for such an agreement to occur are now in place," Mr Rudd told AAP from Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
The UAE is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and supports additional International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. But Australia also insists on a bilateral safeguards agreement.
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Mr Rudd said the new agreement would open up an important new market for Australian uranium producers.
The UAE hopes to begin using nuclear power for electricity by 2017.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop welcomed the announcement but said it highlighted the government's "hypocrisy" in refusing to sell uranium to India.
"This announcement will be taken in India as a further snub," Ms Bishop told AAP. Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the move was "profoundly unhelpful" to global non-proliferation efforts.
"We're calling on the Australian government to publish a list of who it's not intending to sell uranium to," Senator Ludlam told AAP.
"Doesn't matter whether you're a Communist dictatorship or a Middle Eastern Emirate ... it seems Australia is more than happy to do the bidding of the uranium mining companies."
Australian Conservation Foundation anti-nuclear campaigner David Noonan said it was a bad time to start selling uranium to the Middle East, given the unrest sweeping the area.
"Why would we be inserting Australian uranium into that unstable region?"
The Australian Uranium Association welcomed the announcement.
