Uranium producers South Africa and Russia planned to establish international nuclear centres to facilitate the sale of uranium to global markets, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said this week.

Russia was courting SA and other countries to co-operate on finding new technologies to process uranium to fuel nuclear power stations, said Sonjica.

Government planned to declare uranium a "strategic mineral" and would start stockpiling the sought-after nuclear fuel in part to ensure it could power SA's ambitious nuclear expansion program.

Russia was "looking at SA as a market, but probably we can look at co-operating with them on beneficiating uranium", Sonjica said.

Government wanted uranium processing to take place in SA as "we want to have some control over it".

SA is the only country in Africa with a nuclear power plant.

Borrowing from the French example, Sonjica said, SA would also look at recycling and reprocessing spent uranium fuel. "We think it will help us in terms of ensuring that we have the source for generating nuclear (power)."

French Industry Minister Francois Loos said SA should build a second conventional nuclear power plant instead of investing in the highly technological pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) -- a new nuclear power plant to be established near the Koeberg plant. Loos said the PBMR project might not significantly alter SA's inadequate electricity capacity.

SA has embarked on a massive nuclear energy expansion program, with 24-30 new nuclear plants being mooted. The entire project is expected to cost R900bn.

France has encouraged SA to embrace conventional "thirdgeneration" nuclear power plants to expand electricity capacity. French group Areva is bidding to build such a 1300MW plant.

French energy group Areva NC has tripled its stake to 18.5 pct in Northern Uranium Ltd (NTU) and is taking operational control of the uranium explorer's main project - the Gardiner-Tanami project in Australia's Northern Territory, NTU said.

The project comprises 9,950 square kilometers of exploration ground in the Granites-Tanami region which extends into Western Australia.

NTU said Areva unit Cogema which previously held 6.25 pct, has taken up a placement of six mln shares at 0.80 aud a share.

The 4.8 mln aud raised by NTU through the placement will fund further exploration.

Areva, owned by the French government, is the world leader in nuclear power.

As part of the deal Cogema and NTU have formed a strategic alliance.

A $3.27-billion friendly takeover deal between UrAsia Energy and SXR Uranium One Inc. came under intense scrutiny at a conference call Monday, as executives fielded many questions about the risks involved with UrAsia's mine in Kazakhstan.

The terms of the deal will create a major global uranium player named Uranium One Inc., trailing only behind Saskatchewan's Cameco Corp. It will have a combined market capitalization of about $5.87 billion. During a Monday conference call, SXR Uranium One and UrAsia executives addressed many concerns about the stability of UrAsia's Kazakhstan operations.

UrAsia operates three mines in the former Soviet-bloc country, including Akdala, already in production, and two others - South Inkai and Kharassan - expected to begin production this year.

Cameco Corp. has deferred planned uranium sales from its flooded Cigar Lake mine for up to seven years, putting further supply constraints on an already tight market and raising concerns the crucial project could be delayed even longer than expected.

The world's largest uranium producer said it has postponed deliveries of Cigar Lake uranium initially scheduled for this year to the end of those contracts and said other customer deliveries affected by the supply interruption will be put off for "a five- to seven-year period."

TD Newcrest analyst Greg Barnes said this may suggest a more protracted holdup in getting Cigar Lake into production than first thought. "This statement is likely, in our view, to provide further upward momentum behind the uranium price," Mr. Barnes said in a note to clients.

The massive Cigar Lake mine in Northern Saskatchewan filled with water in late October, quashing hopes it would begin producing uranium -- which is used as fuel in nuclear reactors -- by the end of this year.

Governments around the world have been responding to a United Nations report that warns of the need for urgent action on climate change, to avoid irreversible damage to the planet.

The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change says global warming is very likely due to human activity, and predicts rising sea levels, and worsening storms and droughts.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard says the report is further proof that the country should be looking toward nuclear energy.

Mr Howard says wind energy and solar power are not the solution.

He says his government will not change its mind over the Kyoto protocol treaty, which it has refused to sign.

The EU describes it as the starkest warning yet, and Britain says climate change threatened world peace and prosperity.

The United States, which produces about quarter of the world's greenhouse gases, called the report valuable, but the White House has again expressed opposition to compulsory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

And American Energy Secretary Sam Bodman rejected criticism of the United States' record.

The New Zealand government says it is targeting transport, electricity, forestry and agriculture to try to reduce greenhouse gas emission.

Rio Tinto Ltd has followed the lead of larger rival and world's biggest miner BHP Billiton Ltd in drawing attention to future prospects in uranium.

As the company unveiled a record 2006 annual net profit jump of 48 per cent to $US7.438 billion ($A9.59 billion), it repeatedly mentioned yellowcake as one product to keep an eye on.

Chairman Paul Skinner said increased production of uranium by Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest producer of yellowcake, may be on the cards.

"We've probably got the opportunity for a significant lift in our uranium production within the short to medium term," Mr Skinner said.

He also said the market would have higher contract prices for uranium this year and beyond.

"What you will see increasingly in 2007, and particularly in 2008 and beyond, is a greater proportion of contracts written in this more heady environment," Mr Skinner said.

Outgoing chief executive Leigh Clifford, who will be replaced by US-born Tom Albanese in May, says Rio Tinto has expansion prospects.

"We are extremely well placed in the uranium market," chief executive Leigh Clifford said.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see a uranium contribution increase in the coming years."

BHP Billiton, which owns the world's largest uranium deposit Olympic Dam in South Australia, used its annual general meetings in Australia and the UK last year to also draw attention to uranium.

It said that it expected the costs of producing uranium to fall into line with other energy sources such as coal and gas and added that as energy consumption in India and China escalated, those nations would look increasingly to yellowcake as an energy resource.