Syria drops bid for IAEA governors' seat

VIENNA (Reuters) - Syria on Friday dropped a bid for a seat on the governing body of the U.N. nuclear watchdog after running into strong opposition due to an investigation into its alleged atomic activity, diplomats said.

Damascus's pullout cleared the way for U.S.-backed Afghanistan, its only rival for a two-year seat reserved for a Middle East and South Asian (MESA) group, to have its candidacy adopted by consensus by the watchdog's 145-nation assembly later on Friday.

Syria was nominated at an Arab League summit in March for the MESA slot on the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors but ran into stiff Western resistance ahead of the annual IAEA assembly this week.

Diplomats said Afghanistan had garnered the backing of some 90 countries including all Western states and some in Asia, Africa and Latin American, good enough for an assembly majority.

Syria had urged the gathering earlier on Friday to back its candidacy. But, when Afghanistan demanded a vote, Syria asked for a delay pending last-ditch MESA talks in search of a single candidate the assembly could approve by consensus.

Afghanistan refused to back down in the MESA consultations and Syria decided to withdraw, the diplomats told Reuters.

The IAEA has been probing Syria since May over U.S. intelligence allegations that it almost built a secret, plutonium-producing reactor before Israel destroyed the site in an air strike a year ago.

Syria -- an ally of Iran, which is the subject of a much longer-running, and now stalled, IAEA investigation -- has denied having a clandestine nuclear program.

Western diplomats said it was unacceptable for a member state under investigation for suspected nuclear proliferation to be part of the IAEA governing body, also a consensus body.

(Editing by Charles Dick)