WASHINGTON, Dec 12: The White House has listened in on phone calls between Mohamed ElBaradei and Iranian diplomats, the US media reported on Sunday.

The Bush administration is seeking to remove Mr ElBaradei as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency because it feels he is not doing enough to expose Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The US government has refused to accept a recent IAEA report which says that so far there's not enough evidence to prove that Iran has a weapon-grade nuclear programme. "The intercepted calls have not produced any evidence of nefarious conduct by Mr ElBaradei," the Washington Post said, quoting three unnamed US officials who had read the transcripts.

"Some people think he sounds way too soft on the Iranians, but that's about it," one official was quoted as saying. Senior US officials told reporters in Washington that any evidence proving a link between Mr ElBaradei and Iran would help the administration bring a new IAEA chief more receptive to their demands.

The 62-year old Egyptian diplomat also earned the ire of Washington by questioning US intelligence on Iraq. Mr ElBaradei enjoys enough support within the IAEA to win a third term in 2005 but the Bush administration wants Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to replace him. Mr Downer, however, is still unwilling to challenge the IAEA chief.

The deadline for submitting alternative candidates is Dec 31. The official US position is that heads of international organizations should not serve more than two terms, as Mr ElBaradei will have done by next year. In a recent meeting, the outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell also tried to convince Mr ElBaradei not to run for a third term.

Diplomatic sources in Washington told Dawn that the real dispute is Mr ElBaradei's reluctance to go along with the Bush administration in its effort to undo Iran's nuclear programme.