Australia's industry and resources minister Ian Macfarlane promised a public debate on nuclear energy would follow the publication of a government review he said showed the commercial viability of the controversial industry.

"We want to see debate that is based in understanding and knowledge not a debate based on scare tactics," Macfarlane told the Australian Associated Press, previewing the findings of the taskforce headed by former Telstra head Ziggy Switkowski.

"We are seeing reports like the Switkowski report which will indicate that nuclear energy will be competitive with low emission coal within 15 years."

On its release in a few weeks, the review is expected to find the cost of nuclear power would fall over time as an increase in energy needs and moves to fight atmospheric pollution caused by fossil fuels put more of a focus on a technological solution to climate change, The Australian newspaper reported.

A predicted rise in the cost of carbon fuels over the next decade would erase the cost difference between carbon and nuclear energy, The Australian reported a source as saying.

"What we are seeing in the community is a willingness now to consider nuclear energy," Macfarlane said.

The government's green light to the nuclear industry came as thousands of people marched through central Sydney to demand a focus on renewable energy, and protest against global warming.

Before an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 people, opposition leaders attacked Prime Minister John Howard's policies on climate change, and demanded leadership on renewable energy.

"I say, and Labor says, renewables not reactors are the solution to climate change," Labor environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said.

Wilderness Society nuclear campaigner Imogen Zethoven said Howard should be transforming Australia into a renewable energy powerhouse not a "nuclear waste dump for the rest of the world".

However, Howard told party delegates in Queensland state he would not put the mining industry, which generated much of Australia's prosperity, at risk by taking a panicky approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

"We would be foolish, from the national interest point of view, with our vast resources of uranium, to say that we are not going to consider nuclear power."

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