NEW DELHI — India and Australia will hold talks Wednesday to strengthen economic and strategic ties and explore cooperation in civilian nuclear energy.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, on a three-day visit to India, will meet with her Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh later Wednesday, Indian officials said.

The two leaders will discuss Australia's decision to overturn a long-standing ban on exporting uranium to countries that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. India is among those countries.

Australia has 40 percent of the world's known uranium reserves but it sells uranium only for power generation under strict conditions.

Energy-starved India has been desperately seeking uranium sources to run its nuclear power plants, and Australia's refusal to sell the mineral has been a sore point in relations between the two countries.

India refuses to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, saying it discriminates against countries that carried out tests after the treaty came into force in 1970.

Uranium sales to India will be possible once the two countries reach agreement on a nuclear safeguard arrangement, with India giving assurances that the uranium will not be diverted to its military program.

"The thing that would have to happen next is the negotiation of a comprehensive civil nuclear co-operation agreement."

Gillard has said that she expects discussions on uranium sales to India to last one to two years.

The two leaders will also discuss defense cooperation, maritime security in the Indian Ocean region and combatting terrorism.

India and Australia will also explore ways of boosting bilateral trade.

Gillard said Wednesday that the two countries were "very old friends" and she hoped to "achieve closer ties for the future during the visit."

"We want to work together to strengthen our economic partnership and strengthen our strategic partnership," she told reporters.

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Trade between the two countries has grown from $4 billion in 2000 to more than $20 billion last year. India is Australia's fourth-biggest market and trade figures are expected to touch $40 billion by 2016.

Australian universities are trying hard to entice Indian students to return to Australia to pursue college or professional degrees. The numbers of Indian students studying in Australia has fallen after a series of racial attacks that spiked in 2009.

Gillard also announced that Australia will confer its highest civilian honor, the Order of Australia, on Indian cricket wizard Sachin Tendulkar, a decision that would go down well in cricket-mad India.

"This is a very special honor that is very rarely awarded to someone who is not an Australian citizen, or an Australian national," Gillard told reporters.

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