US ends fight against ElBaradei over nuclear watchdog term

THE United States is giving up its solo fight against Mohamed ElBaradei, who is flying to Washington to discuss his bid for a third term as head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said US and European officials.

US and European officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will offer support for ElBaradei's candidacy as director-general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"The US will support ElBaradei, but it wants some things in return," a European diplomat said, adding these issues involved Iran and the general fight against nuclear arms proliferation.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky confirmed that Mr ElBaradei had been invited to Washington but declined to give details.

"He's been invited by Rice to discuss a number of important non-proliferation matters that will come up at next week's (IAEA) board of governors meeting," said Mr Gwozdecky.

Asked if a third term for Mr ElBaradei and Iran's nuclear programme would be discussed, he said: "In all likelihood."

Mr ElBaradei has run the IAEA since 1997. He fell out with the Americans over what they saw as soft-pedalling on the atomic programmes of Iraq and Iran.

The IAEA's 35-nation board of governors begins its quarterly meeting on Monday. One of the main items on the agenda is the issue of a third term for Mr ElBaradei, which Washington opposed, arguing that heads of UN agencies should serve no more than two terms. UN diplomats say the real reasons were his refusal to accept US allegations that pre-war Iraq had revived its nuclear weapons programme and his opposition to US demands that the IAEA board report Iran to the UN Security Council for hiding sensitive nuclear activities from the agency.

For months, the US has been the only country on the board actively opposing Mr ElBaradei.

Several diplomats said some of his recent decisions would win favour with Washington, though an IAEA official denied Mr ElBaradei was deliberately trying to make the Americans happy.

"ElBaradei does not pander to any country's agenda ... and remains impartial," the official said.

Mr ElBaradei informed Iran this week that the IAEA board would hear a report on progress in the agency's two-year probe of Iran's nuclear programme next week, diplomats said.

"Iran will not be happy about this report, but the US will," a European diplomat said.

Mr ElBaradei had originally planned to make only a few remarks about Iran to the board to avoid putting too much pressure on it ahead of its June 17 presidential election, he said.

The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme but found no hard proof that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons.