The United States officially opposes ElBaradei, who is 62, serving more than two terms but is actually against the former Egyptian diplomat for not being tough enough on Iran, which Washington charges is hiding a covert nuclear weapons program, diplomats said.

There is no guarantee of a vote Wednesday as the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency may put off the decision until a June meeting, which would be the deadline for choosing a new IAEA director general, diplomats said.

ElBaradei's term expires November 30. The new director general would be ratified at an IAEA plenary conference in September.

The United States may be forced eventually to accept him as "there is no country that has said it is not able to support ElBaradei," who is widely credited with doing a good job in investigating Iran's nuclear program, a Western diplomat, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

"Everything shows the United States won't have the blocking minority (of 12 votes) needed to stop ElBaradei," another Western diplomat said, referring to the two-thirds majority of the 35-member board needed to elect a director general.

Diplomats said that putting off the decision until June would be in order to give Washington time to sign on to the consensus for ElBaradei for which non-aligned and developing nations on the board are lobbying.

The United States is still hoping however for a vote on ElBaradei to fail and for a "competing candidate" to emerge, a US official told AFP but admitted that time was running short.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the United States may eventually yield and accept ElBaradei.

"The White House does not want this to become a damaging foreign policy problem at a time when we are working well with Europe and others on pressing challenges like Iraq, Darfur, Iran, arms embargo to China, etc.," the official said.

"If no competing candidate emerges 'soon', I imagine the president and secretary of state will be faced with a tough choice, and that they would ultimately choose to avoid a damaging diplomatic split at the (IAEA) board," the official said.

Developing nations at the IAEA are pushing for a decision however "as there is a restive feeling the process has gone on too long as there is a candidate and almost no one is opposed to him," a diplomat from a non-aligned nation, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The deadline for submitting candidacies fell last December 31.

Washington justifies its stance against ElBaradei, who has run the IAEA since 1997, on the grounds that agency heads should not serve more than two terms, in line with a policy set by a Geneva group of top 10 contributors to UN organizations.

But IAEA board chairman Ingrid Hall, the ambassador from Canada, had told an IAEA board meeting in March that "ElBaradei has strong and broad support," according to a Western diplomat.

Hall said earlier this month that the April 27 board meeting was being held "as requested by the Group of 77 (developing nations) and China."

ElBaradei also has support from European states, which back a policy of urging Iran to cooperate rather than confronting it as Washington has sought.

The United States wants the IAEA to report Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions but ElBaradei says the "jury is still out" on whether Tehran's program is peaceful or not.

ElBaradei has also earned the ire of Washington by questioning US intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction under now deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

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