IAEA confirms new chief

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The world's top nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, has chosen Japan's Yukiya Amano as its next head. This ends a tug of war on who should succeed Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei.

Candidate for the position of the Director General of the International  Atomic Energy Agency IAEA Yukiya Amano of Japan attends a board of  Governors meeting at Vienna's UN headquarters June 15, 2009.Xinhua/Reuters  File Photo)

The 35-member IAEA board held a meeting on Friday afternoon, officially confirming the Japanese ambassador to the IAEA... as the agency's next director-general.

Amano will be taking control of the IAEA at a particularly difficult time.

Its nuclear investigations of Iran and Syria are both deadlocked. And it has no overview at all of the DPRK, which is forging ahead with its nuclear arms program.

But Amano says he is confident he can do the job while considering the interests of all parties.

Yukiya Amano, IAEA Director General-Elect said "I will dedicate my efforts to the acceleration and enlargement of the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world. I will work towards the enhancement of technical cooperation and its related activities and the prevention of the spread of nuclear weapons and the further improvement of the overall management of the agency."

The board will submit its decision to the IAEA's General Assembly in September. If approved, Amano will officially succeed the current chief on December 1st for a four-year term.