The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, denounced what he said was a campaign to discredit him that had called into question his impartially in the Middle East, in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel to be published Monday.

"There's a real campaign against me, trying to drag me through the mud," ElBaradei said.

The Egyptian head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said he's been accused of not being impartial toward Muslim countries in getting them to reveal any secret nuclear activity.

The administration of US President George W. Bush has criticised the IAEA over Iran, which the United States believes is conducting a secret nuclear weapons program.

"I have nothing to hide professionally. But it is not very nice when you apparently can't even talk in private on the telephone with your wife or your daughter," ElBaradei told Der Spiegel.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005