The outgoing director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, has praised South Africa for making "the right choice" regarding nuclear power, by scrapping its nuclear weapons and focusing on the peaceful uses of nuclear technology.

He highlighted that South Africa was the first country to get rid of all its nuclear weapons.

Speaking briefly in Centurion, just south of Pretoria, on Monday, before meeting with South African Energy Minister Dipuo Peters, ElBaradei also praised the quality of the country's nuclear infrastructure.

He gave the assurance that cooperation with South Africa was important for the IAEA.

South Africa's nuclear facilities include the SAFARI-1 research reactor at Pelindaba, west of Pretoria, and the Koeberg nuclear power plant, near Cape Town.

The IAEA is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and serves as the global centre for nuclear cooperation and for the encouragement and facilitation of the peaceful and safe uses of nuclear energy around the world, including nuclear power for electricity generation and nuclear medicine, as well as peaceful atomic scientific research and technological development.

Dr ElBaradei, who is Egyptian, will step down as IAEA director-general on November 30, having held the post for three four-year terms.

His replacement is Ambassador Yukiya Amano of Japan, who will assume the office on December 1.

Amano will be the fifth director-general in the 52-year history of the IAEA.

Although it has a formalised working relationship with the United Nations, the IAEA is an independent international organisation.