Australia is in a unique position because of its geography and political stability to help the world solve the problem of where to store nuclear waste from bombs dismantled at the end of the Cold War, according to Clinton's special envoy on weapons of mass destruction, Robert Gallucci.

``If Australia could appreciate the concept and decide it was in the national interest there would be enormous benefits for the world,'' he told an Australian newspaper.

Australia was one of the few places in the world with the political and geological stability necessary for such a sensitive gatekeeping job, Gallucci said.

But environmentalists objected today, saying saddling Australia with the world's nuclear waste was short-sighted.

``The government of Australia has only beenaround for 99 years,'' Larry O'Loughin, a campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, told AFP

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``It's a very optimistic outlook to say Australia's going to have a stable political outlook for 200,000 years. That's just farcical.''

Gallucci, dean of the prestigious Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, said he had met Australian Prime Minister John Howard earlier this year but said they had not discussed the issue of nuclear waste.