ElBaradei, Israel clash over Syria atom probe "bias"

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - Israel accused the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief on Thursday of political bias in his probe into allegations of a secret Syrian atomic site, and he shot back that Israel's position was "totally distorted."

The International Atomic Energy Agency has sought to clarify U.S. intelligence reports saying Syria almost completed a reactor of North Korean design that could have yielded plutonium for atom bombs, before Israel bombed it to pieces in 2007.

IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei has rebuked Syria for withholding documentation and access needed for inspectors to draw conclusions. But he has also criticized Israel for not alerting the IAEA before destroying the site, which he said has made it almost impossible to establish the truth.

Those tensions boiled over into rare fireworks on the floor of an IAEA board of governors meeting when Israel's envoy accused ElBaradei of making "redundant" demands and showing bias by making repeated calls on Israel to produce more evidence.

He said Israel had answered the only relevant IAEA question put to it by stating that uranium traces found at the bombed site did not come from Israeli munitions that hit it.

"Therefore the repeated call by the director general on Israel to cooperate with this investigation is redundant," Ambassador Israel Michaeli told the 35-nation governing board.

"Had (ElBaradei) wished for further information from Israel, he would have not refused to meet with Israeli officials, and (would have) refrained from publicly lashing at Israel.

"Israel calls on (ElBaradei) to avoid political bias in dealing with the Syrian file," said Michaeli.