Speaking to a scientific forum here on the future role of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ElBaradei said: "We are not in the best position to cope with the increasing challenges we are facing."

The world had changed dramatically since the watchdog was set up 50 years ago and so had the area of the IAEA's activities, ElBaradei said, referring to proliferation, safety, security or disarmament.

"More and more, we have come to realise that we do not have either the resources or the legal authority to cope with the challenges we are facing," said the Egyptian diplomat, who has headed the IAEA since 1997 and steps down next year.

ElBaradei said "90 percent of the IAEA's funding for its security programme comes from extra-budgetary resources.

"We essentially have to pass the hat and ask for resources. Lots of it comes with conditions attached to it. So we don't have the flexibility to prioritise the way we see in terms of risk," he complained.

He said the IAEA's legal authority was "very limited."

ElBaradei recently commissioned a special panel of eminent people to reflect on the role of the body up to and beyond 2020. Headed by former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, the panel presented its findings in May.

"It didn't take them much to realise that we are not in good shape, that lots of things need to be done," ElBaradei said Tuesday.

And all of the panel's recommendations are "doable, if we have the will, if we understand the risks we are facing and if we have the will to move forward," ElBaradei said.

In his opening address to the IAEA's week-long general conference non Monday, the director general told the agency's 145 member countries that "all is not well with the IAEA.

"There is a disconnect between what you, the member states, are asking us to do, and the legal authority and resources available to us. This will hamper our effectiveness, sooner rather than later, it is not addressed."

In 1997, the agency drew up a model "Additional Protocol" giving its inspectors additional powers to search for undeclared nuclear material and activities.

However, 10 years on, "we still have a hundred countries party to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) that have not adopted the additional protocol. That, to me, is an abysmal record," ElBaradei said.

There was also a dichotomy in the fact that nuclear-weapon states were refusing to disarm, as they are obliged to do under the NPT, but were telling the nuclear have-nots that they are not allowed to develop atomic weapons, he said.

"How can I go with a straight face to the non-nuclear weapon states and tell them that nuclear weapons are not good for you ... while the weapon states continue to modernise .... This dichotomy makes the system unsustainable."

ElBaradei said member states should not be afraid of redrawing the IAEA's statute if necessary.

"I don't say anything recommended by the panel that goes beyond the statute," he said.

"But I should say the statute is not sacrosanct. The statute is a document that was drafted 50 years ago to regulate the nuclear order. And if we see a need to change the statute, then we should have the courage to go about it."

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