EXCLUSIVE - No sign Iran seeks nuclear arms - new IAEA head

By Sylvia Westall

VIENNA (Reuters) - The incoming head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday he did not see any hard evidence Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear arms.

"I don't see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this," Yukiya Amano told Reuters in his first direct comment on Iran's atomic programme since his election, when asked whether he believed Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons capability.

Current International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei said last month it was his "gut feeling" Iran was seeking the ability to produce nuclear arms, if it desired, as an "insurance policy" against perceived threats.

"I'm not going to be a "soft" Director-General or a "tough" Director-General," Amano told Reuters, when asked how he would approach Iran and Syria, both subject to stalled IAEA probes.

Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat, won over the agency's member states on Friday, including developing countries which had tried to thwart his bid for the politically-sensitive post.

Amano is regarded as a reserved technocrat who would de-politicise the IAEA helm after 12 years of direction by ElBaradei, an outspoken Nobel Peace laureate. He retires in November.

Diplomats say the IAEA cannot afford weak leadership or a governing body polarized between nuclear "have" and "have not" nations at a time of danger to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Amano was only narrowly elected as Director-General on Thursday, but the win was sealed by acclamation at a closed-door meeting of the IAEA's 146 members on Friday.