VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The United States is invading the privacy of the U.N. nuclear chief if it is eavesdropping on his phone calls, a nuclear agency official said Monday after media reports that Washington was collecting information to support its call for the chief's ouster.

International Atomic Energy Agency officials have long suspected that foreign governments were tapping their phones, chief agency spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said.

"It's not the way we prefer to work, but it's a reality. We always worked on the assumption that one or more entities out there were trying to listen in on our discussions," Gwozdecky said. "If it's true, it would be an invasion of privacy."

On Sunday, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told al-Arabiya television that any U.S. eavesdropping on his phone calls "would be a violation of my privacy."

"I have nothing to hide," ElBaradei told al-Arabiya. "If the report of listening to my phone calls is true, it would constitute a violation of the rights of organizations to work freely, and a violation of my personal rights."

A senior State Department official declined to comment on Gwozdecky's statement. The official, asking not to be identified, said the administration has a good relationship with el-Baradei and sees no reason or cause to put the relationship in doubt.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the Bush administration was reviewing dozens of intercepts of ElBaradei's telephone calls with Iranian diplomats for information to support his ouster. A White House spokesman refused last week to comment on that report.

U.S. officials, including outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell, have made clear they want ElBaradei replaced when his second term ends next summer. The agency chief has said publicly he intends to pursue a third term.

ElBaradei, an Egyptian, has run the Vienna-based IAEA since 1997. The agency has refused to comment on the U.S. desire for a change in leadership.

Critics have suggested U.S. officials were upset with ElBaradei for reporting progress in U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq while the administration was trying to rally U.N. support for war.

But Powell said last week the sole U.S. reason for wanting to remove ElBaradei was an informal agreement among 14 countries - called the Geneva rule - that heads of U.N. and other international bodies should serve no more than two terms.

U.S. officials also have expressed disappointment that the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors did not report Iran to the U.N. Security Council at a key meeting last month. Such a report could have led to sanctions against Tehran.

The agency instead approved a resolution authorizing ElBaradei to monitor Iran's commitment to freeze uranium enrichment activities that can produce either low-grade nuclear fuel or the raw material for atomic weapons.

The United States contends Iran - which President Bush once said was part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and prewar Iraq - is running a covert nuclear weapons program and says it reserves the right to report Iran to the council on its own. The Tehran regime insists its activities are peaceful and geared purely toward generating electricity.