The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appointed Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano as its new head Thursday afternoon.

Israel privately heaved a sigh of relief at the election of Amano to replace Mohammed ElBaradei as head of the agency.

The relief was both because the tenure of ElBaradei, with whom Israel has had a rocky relationship, is about to end, and also because Amano beat out South Africa's candidate Abdul Samad Minty.

While officially Israel had no comment on the development, privately government sources said that Amano was Israel's preferred candidate.

"We hope now that our relationship with the IAEA will be less tense, that the unnecessary friction with the IAEA will disappear, and that we can return to full cooperation," one government source said. He said that the expectation in Jerusalem was that Amano would be more "neutral" than ElBaradi was when it came to Israel's concerns.

While Amano and Minty were believed to have equivalent technical expertise for the job, South Africa's relationship with Iran is very problematic from an Israeli perspective.

For instance, in 2006, when the IAEA finally decided to report Iran to the UN Security Council, South Africa was one of five countries, alongside Libya, Algeria, Indonesia and Belarus, that abstained. Only Cuba, Syria and Venezuela voted against.

At the time, South Africa was considered among the most reticent, among non- Arab or Muslim countries, to join in international condemnations of Iran.

The reasons given for the degree of coziness between Iran and South Africa include historical and business relationships. Iran was a big backer of the African National Congress during its fight against apartheid and Iran provides South Africa with cheap oil.

When asked by others who Israel supported, the government source said, Jerusalem did not hide that it preferred Amano. Part of the concern over Minty was a fear he maintained a strong, consolidated Third World view of disarmament and non-proliferation that ran contrary to Israel's interests.

The IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, elected Amano in a confidential vote. He won 23 votes. One delegate abstained from the vote and the remaining eleven voted for Minty.

Amano will be taking control of the IAEA at a particularly difficult time. Its nuclear investigations of Iran and Syria are both deadlocked, and it has no overview at all of North Korea, which is forging ahead with its nuclear arms program.