White House reverses view on U.N. nuke agency chief

WASHINGTON -- Reversing course, the Bush administration said Thursday it was prepared to support a third term for the head of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency.

Last December, the administration called on Mohamed ElBaradei to step down after his term ended this summer. Differences over Iran and also Iraq, where ElBaradei supported extended weapons inspections, were behind U.S. dissatisfaction.

But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday that if other nations on the IAEA's board voted this summer for a third term for ElBaradei, the United States was prepared to join the consensus.

The announcement followed a half-hour meeting between ElBaradei and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

They agreed on the urgency of halting the spread of nuclear weapons technology and that the agency's focus should be placed on suspicious Iranian actions, McCormack said.

Former secretary of state Colin Powell has opposed a third term for ElBaradei, and Rice agrees that "the two-term rule is an important principle" within the U.N., McCormack said. "It leads to a healthy U.N. system."

But, he said, ElBaradei and agency officials assigned to overseeing Iran "are working in a serious way."

"He understands clearly where we are on the issue" after talking to Rice and other administration officials, the spokes-man said.

ElBaradei did not speak to reporters as he entered and left the State Department for his meeting with Rice.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the private Arms Control Association, said the administration's decision on ElBaradei "recognizes the political reality that no one else supported his ejection" during a sensitive period of working on Iran and on the impact of a weapons technology ring headed by A.Q. Khan of Pakistan.

"While there is broad agreement on the need to stop proliferation, the United States has not yet come into alignment with ElBaradei and its own European allies about how to strengthen the nonproliferation regime," Kimball said in an interview.

Rice had signaled at a Wednesday news conference that the position on ElBaradei was about to change, saying that "we have worked well with Dr. ElBaradei in the past" and that she looked forward to talking to him about "how Iran would be handled."

The Bush administration is determined to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and is relying heavily on diplomatic efforts by Germany, France and Britain.

In a pat on the back for ElBaradei, spokesman McCormack said Thursday the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency "is serious in its work" and in seeing that Iran complies with its commitments to the agency.

"We look forward to working together," particularly in closing any loopholes in the treaty that might allow countries to acquire nuclear technology, McCormack said.