The federal government says Singapore Telecommunications' bid for Cable & Wireless Optus will depend on United States export licences for military satellite technology.
The licences are needed for the satellite's platform and its transponder, used to send, receive and encrypt information.
Defence Minister Peter Reith confirmed that government approval for SingTel's bid, via the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), depended on the companies gaining the US export licences.
"It is their job to get the export licences and they have assured the government they will not have any trouble doing that," a spokesman for Reith told Reuters.
"If they don't get them, the FIRB won't put it through."
SingTel is seeking approval of its AU$17 billion takeover of C&W Optus, 52-percent owned by Britain's Cable & Wireless. At issue is a AU$500 million satellite venture between C&W Optus and the Australian Defence Department.
The satellite will carry sensitive military and intelligence communications. Canberra first voiced concern just over a month ago that SingTel's bid would give a foreign government access to information relating to national security.
"Part of the process for SingTel will be to get a guarantee that those export licences will be granted, and it will be one of the conditions of the sale," Reith's spokesman confirmed.
US approval of such licences takes some three months, but senior SingTel and C&W Optus officials have just returned from Washington in an attempt to speed the process, The Age newspaper reported.
