OTTAWA: Canada's prime minister announced a breakthrough deal Wednesday to supply uranium to India for electricity generation, putting behind decades of discord over India's surreptitious use of Canadian technologies to build atomic bombs.

The agreement was signed in Ottawa during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- the first Indian leader to visit Canada in 42 years, since Indira Gandhi.

The Can$350 million (US$283 million) contract is for the supply of 7.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate over the next five years, for use in a growing number of Indian nuclear power plants.

The uranium is to be sourced from the northern Saskatchewan mines of Cameco, the world's third-largest uranium producer, accountable for 16 percent of world production. It currently exports about Can$1 billion worth of uranium annually.

APP