United Nations, Oct 28 : Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said in a speech that the number of reports of nuclear or radioactive material stolen around the world last year was “disturbingly high.”

Dr. ElBaradei, in his annual report on Monday to the General Assembly, said nearly 250 such thefts were reported in the year ending in June. 

“The possibility of terrorists obtaining nuclear or other radioactive material remains a grave threat. Equally troubling is the fact that much of this material is not subsequently recovered,” The New York Times quoted him, as saying.

New York - The world is witnessing a nuclear power renaissance at a time when demands for fossil fuel-based energy and its prices have increased, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Monday.

But the expected increase in civilian nuclear power plants is accompanied by the risk of mounting nuclear material being converted into weapons, IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei told the UN General Assembly, which met to discuss the work of the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog.

"Nuclear power is undergoing something of a renaissance," ElBaradei said, comparing the situation to 10 years ago when nuclear power had stopped growing in developed countries because of security and safety risks.

Vienna - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed Elbaradei warned Monday in Vienna that the agency's ability to carry out its core work was at risk unless funding was increased. 

As member states of the Vienna-based agency have hardly raised its budget since the early 1980s, some areas of work, such as the prevention of nuclear terrorism, are being funded through special contributions by individual countries. 

Tehran - The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has cancelled a scheduled trip to Vienna to attend the general assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), local media reported Sunday.

Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, who is also Iran's vice-president, was to address the assembly Monday and was also expected to meet with IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.

ISNA news agency however quoted an unnamed nuclear official as saying that Aqazadeh would not attend the assembly.

Vienna - Japan has officially nominated its United Nations ambassador in Vienna, Yukiya Amano, as a candidate for succeeding Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Japanese foreign ministry said Friday.

As Director General ElBaradei's third term in office at the Vienna- based agency ends in November 2009, IAEA member states have time until the end of this year to name their candidates.

Amano previously served as Director-General of his ministry's Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Department.

Vienna - Iran is continuing to expand its uranium enrichment programme while obfuscating UN efforts to verify the nature of the country's nuclear ambitions, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday.

Mohamed ElBaradei also said that the agency had new information relating to past Iranian nuclear weapons-related studies, but had had no cooperation from the latter in clarifying their details.