Five candidates in race for IAEA top job: Diplomat

Five candidates are in the running to take over from Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the UN atomic watchdog, diplomats close to the election process said today as the deadline for nominations expired.     

The deadline for nominations for the position of director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency expired at midnight yesterday.     

Egyptian diplomat ElBaradei is stepping down in November after 12 years at the head of the agency.     

"Yesterday, there were five candidates," a diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.     

The candidates to succeed him are: South Africa's long-time ambassador to the IAEA, Abdul Samad Minty, 69; Japanese ambassador Yukiya Amano, 61;  Ernest Petric, 72, of Slovenia, a former IAEA ambassador; Luis Echavarri, 60, of Spain, current head of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency; and former Belgian deputy prime minister, defence and energy minister, Jean-Pol Poncelet, 58, the diplomat said.     

Poncelet emerged at the last minute as a candidate. The IAEA is unlikely to name the candidates officially for a couple of days yet, to give Taous Feroukhi, time to inform the IAEA's member states, the diplomat said.