Q+A-Second bid to elect IAEA chief may deadlock again

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA, July 1 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog will try again to resolve a protracted leadership appointment on Thursday when it votes on a successor to Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei following a stalemate in March.

But many diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency fear an inconclusive outcome again, raising the spectre of continuing distraction from a growing list of proliferation challenges, topped by North Korea and Iran.

Here are questions and answers on the race to replace ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who retires in November.

WHO IS IN THE RUNNING?

* Yukiya Amano, Japan's veteran ambassador to the IAEA

* Abdul Samad Minty, the South African ambassador

* Luis Echavarri, Spanish head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's nuclear energy branch

Amano and Minty faced off in the March election. Three Europeans subsequently entered the race, but two, a former Slovenian envoy to the IAEA and a Belgian executive at THE French nuclear energy giant Areva, dropped out this week.