"We would be very concerned if John Howard was about to step outside that whole regime (nuclear non-proliferation treaty)," Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd was quoted as saying by The Age newspaper.
A media report on Sunday claimed that Australia was likely to sign an agreement clearing the way for massive uranium sales to China during the visit of Premier Wen Jiabao early in April.
Rudd said Australia must not suddenly start weakening its commitment to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
During last week's trilateral talks involving Australia, the US and Japan, Prime Minister John Howard announced that Australian officials would soon visit India and the US to examine the agreement under which the US would begin sharing nuclear technology with India.
On uranium sales to India, Howard had said, "You never say never."
Australia has so far refused to sell uranium to India because it has not signed the nonproliferation treaty. Rudd said Australia, having large uranium reserves, must act responsibly to uphold the global nonproliferation regime.
However he said if full safeguards were in place, his party will not have any in-principle objection on sell of uranium.
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