South Africa's long-time ambassador to the IAEA, Abdul Samad Minty, said Wednesday he has been renominated as a candidate to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the UN atomic watchdog.

"The nomination was formally submitted yesterday (Tuesday)," Minty told AFP by telephone.

The race for the top job at the International Atomic Energy Agency was re-opened last month after neither Minty, 69, nor Japanese ambassador Yukiya Amano, 61 — who were the only two candidates at the time — secured the necessary two-thirds majority.

Egyptian diplomat ElBaradei is stepping down in November after 12 years in the job.

A deadline for new nominations was set for April 27 and so far, Amano has already said he would stand again, and two more candidates have officially entered the running: Ernest Petric, 72, of Slovenia, a former IAEA ambassador; and Luis Echavarri, 60, of Spain, current head of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA).

Minty said: "We still feel that I can win the support as a candidate of consensus."

During a special two-day meeting at the end of March, the IAEA's 35-member board was unable to choose between Amano and Minty as ElBaradei's successor.

According to board chairwoman Taous Feroukhi at the time, neither had been able to bridge the gap between the industrialised and developing nations on the IAEA's deeply-divided board.

Amano had been perceived to be the preferred candidate of the West and Minty the favourite of developing nations.

ElBaradei's successor will take over the highly sensitive nuclear dossiers of Syria and Iran and will also have to persuade member countries to contribute more money to its budget.

Other names have also been mooted as possible candidates, including Noramly Muslim, chairman of the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board; the head of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (POCWS), Rogelio Pfirter of Argentina; and Chile's ambassador to the IAEA, Milenko Skoknic.

Following the deadline for nominations on Monday, there will be a period of campaigning by candidates, with a final election expected late in May.

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