Australia on Tuesday said it will support sanctions against North Korea in response to the Communist regime's first nuclear weapons test.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer expressed Australia's anger to North Korean ambassador Chon Jae Hong in a meeting on Tuesday and said the government will support sanctions against the regime.

"I told him that this wouldn't improve North Korea's security.. On the contrary this action of North Korea has led to a deterioration in the security environment of north Asia," Downer said after the meeting.

"I told the ambassador also that we would be supporting the United Nations Security Council sanctions under chapter 7," he said.

"We were urging our friends and allies in the United Nations to pass a resolution imposing sanctions under chapter 7," the Australian foreign minister said.

Defending his country's nuclear testing, Chon said his country was facing the threat of nuclear war and that was the reason to develop nuclear weapons, according to a media report.

"We are under extreme threat of United States of nuclear war," Chon said.