The UN atomic watchdog invited its member states Monday to submit new nominations for the post of director general by April 27 after its board failed to agree on a candidate last week.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board was unable to name a successor to Mohamed ElBaradei at a special meeting last week as neither of the two candidates in the running secured enough votes.
Board chairwoman Taous Feroukhi circulated a letter to member states Monday asking for new nominations after Friday's vote between Yukiya Amano of Japan and Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa produced no clear winner.
"The purpose of this letter is once again to invite Member States to nominate candidates for the post of Director General," the document said.
"Nominations, together with the curricula vitae, should reach me not later than April 27."
While Japan is expected to renominate 61-year-old Amano, Minty, 69, has left it open whether he will stand again.
The problem, Feroukhi had said on Friday, was that neither had been able to bridge the gap between the industrialised and developing nations on the IAEA's deeply-divided board.
Amano had been perceived to be the preferred candidate of the West and Minty the favourite of developing nations.
ElBaradei's successor will take over the highly sensitive nuclear dossiers of Syria and Iran and will also have to persuade member countries to contribute more money to its budget.
In the past, a number of names have been circulated as possible candidates, including the head of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (POCWS), Rogelio Pfirter of Argentina, and Chile's ambassador to the IAEA, Milenko Skoknic.
In recent days, the Spanish director of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's nuclear energy agency, Luis Echavarri, has also been mooted.
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