UNITED NATIONS – Diplomats in Vienna suspect the story circulating in the press about a clandestine nuclear program in Egypt is part of an American-led campaign to oust the head of the international agency charged with preventing the proliferation of atomic weapons.

Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian national, is in the midst of a re-election campaign for a third term as the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. Recently he won an important victory, as the December 31 deadline for presenting new candidacies to head the agency went by. No other candidate officially vied for the job.

Yesterday, the Associated Press published a report from Vienna saying the IAEA “found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs.” An unnamed diplomat said that as recently as last year, the nuclear watchdog discovered suspicious products, including several pounds of uranium metal and uranium tetra fluoride – both of which could be used in the core of nuclear warheads.

But one Vienna-based diplomat told The New York Sun yesterday that the story is not new, and that the agency dealt with similar allegations last November. The diplomat said that at the agency, many see American hands behind leak. The assumption is that if the IAEA has downplayed the discovery of illicit material in Egypt, it could be traced down to Mr. ElBaradei’s nationality.

The organization strongly denies any conflict of interest. “We apply the same verification standards in every country we work,” IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told the Sun. Egypt denied any wrongdoing, telling the AP, “Nothing about our nuclear program is secret.” State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said yesterday that Washington is withholding judgment until the IAEA officially reports on the findings.

Mr. ElBaradei, who will end his second term this year, is officially opposed by Washington because of an agreement among several nations to prevent a third-term service for high officials in international bodies. But the Bush administration has other reasons to be unhappy with him as well, including his refusal to declare Iran in violation of nonproliferation rules and the timing of his discovery of missing explosives in Iraq, which the IAEA announced on the eve of the presidential campaign.

A State Department official who asked not to be named confirmed to the Sun yesterday that America still opposes Mr. ElBaradei’s candidacy despite the IAEA rule not to allow any new candidates to run for the post after the deadline at end of the year. According to an editorial yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Washington believes it has enough allies on the 35-member IAEA board of directors to prevent Mr. ElBaradei’s re-election this spring.

The Journal reports that America already “identified a strong candidate who wants the job.” One such candidate could be former Swedish ambassador in Washington, Rolf Ekeus, who led the first United Nations inspection team in Iraq between 1991 and 1997 and is still considered by Washington to have been the most effective weapons inspector there. Well-liked in Washington, Mr. Ekeus is also held in high esteem in international circles as a careful but tough-minded disarmament expert.