The anti-nuclear movement in India is facing severe police repression and needs support, the Australian Greens said today.

Senator Scott Ludlam said disturbing reports from Tamil Nadu showed authorities would stop at nothing to break the protests against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant.

"For more than seven months the people of the Koodankulam area have been fighting to defend themselves and their land from an out of control nuclear industry. Now the state is trying to smash their movement.”

The Labor Party's backflip on the sale of uranium to India is "a shocking abandonment of the campaign for nuclear disarmament", the Australian Greens said today. Nuclear issues spokesperson Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam said the sale of uranium to India while that country is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is opposed by many Indian people and almost certainly illegal.