By Simon Morgan (AFP) – Jun 18, 2009

VIENNA (AFP) — UN watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei sparred with an Israeli envoy on Thursday after being accused of bias in the handling of an investigation into Syria's nuclear activities, diplomats said.

The United States meanwhile accused Syria of obstructing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) probe into allegations that it was building a secret nuclear reactor at a site that was bombed by Israeli jets in September 2007.

Israeli ambassador Israel Michaeli made his accusation to ElBaradei during a debate on Syria at a meeting of the IAEA's 35-member board.

Michaeli urged ElBaradei, an Egyptian, "to avoid political bias in dealing with Syria's nuclear file."

ElBaradei has frequently hit out at Israel for not informing the IAEA of its concerns about the suspect site in Syria before bombing it.

"Israel has responded timely and in good faith to the question addressed to it regarding the possible origin of the uranium particles, traced in the site of the nuclear reactor in Dair Alzour," Michaeli said in remarks, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

Traces of uranium were found at the site -- known alternatively as Dair Alzour or Al-Kibar -- which Damascus claims came from the Israeli bombs that razed the building.

"Therefore the repeated calls by the director general on Israel to cooperate with this investigation are redundant," the envoy added, accusing ElBaradei of "publicly bashing at Israel."

The IAEA chief was angered by Michaeli's remarks, and according to a transcript of his comments obtained by AFP, described the Israeli envoy's statement as "totally distorted."

"We work here in an organisation that is an organisation of international law. We apply international law, not selectively, but across the board," ElBaradei said.

"When Israel took it upon itself to destroy a facility, what was claimed to be a nuclear facility, without giving the agency the opportunity to verify that ... this was not only making it almost impossible for us to establish the facts, but it was a clear violation of international law," he said.

While the Israeli envoy had said Syria should be "deplored and condemned... Israel, with its action, is deplored by not allowing us to do what we are supposed to do under international law," ElBaradei continued.

Israel "is not even a member of the regime to tell us what tools are available to us," ElBaradei said, referring to Israel's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"We would appreciate it if you could stop preaching to us how we can do our jobs."

And he added: "You cannot sit on the fence, making use of the system, without being accountable."

Israel is widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed state.

ElBaradei rejected the accusation of bias.

"To say that I am biased, I will not dignify that with a response. I will leave it to the board, who can decide whether we are doing our work with the required impartiality and professionalism," he said.

Syria was the main focus of debate on the fourth day of the IAEA meeting, which was expected to end later on Thursday.

Damascus denies that Dair Alzour was a nuclear reactor, claiming it was a disused military facility.

It has only allowed IAEA inspectors to visit the site once, and has since turned down requests for follow-up inspections and access to other sites.

The IAEA has said the building bore some characteristics of a nuclear facility and that UN inspectors had detected "significant" traces of man-made uranium at that site, as yet unexplained by Damascus.

In its latest report, the IAEA revealed that inspectors had now found uranium particles at a second site -- a research reactor near Damascus -- that would not normally be expected there.

It was too early to say whether the uranium particles at the two sites were in any way connected, according to the IAEA.

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