Vienna  - With long-serving director Mohammed ElBaradei uninterested in a fourth term, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is set to meet Thursday to pick a successor.

Two candidates have thrown their hat into the ring.

Yukiya Amano, 62, is currently Japan's permanent representative and ambassador to the IAEA.

Abdul Minty, 69, has been South Africa's representative to the IAEA since 1995. He is also deputy director general of South Africa's Foreign Affairs Department.

Amano is the favourite, but his victory is by no means assured. The IAEA, which employs 2,200 workers and has a budget of 290 million dollars, is required to have a successor in place by June.

ElBaradei's term officially ends in November.

The head of the IAEA is tasked with helping members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) find ways to pursue peaceful methods of using atomic energy. However, the job's focus has more and more turned to monitoring nations - Iran, North Korea and Libya, for example - trying to develop nuclear weapons in secret.

El-Baradei was drawn into the public eye in 2002 when his investigations in Iraq contradicted statements by the administration of US president George W Bush that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, drawing the ire of Washington. (dpa)