  A high angular resolution study of the nucleus of the FR I galaxy IC4296
using Chandra ACIS-S and VLBA observations is presented, with the aim of
studying the nature of the accretion process. Pointlike and hard X-ray emission
is found, well described by a moderately absorbed power law of
Gamma=1.48^{+0.42}_{-0.34}; no iron fluorescence line from cold material is
detected. The 0.3-10 keV luminosity is 2.4\times 10^{41} erg/s, that is \sim
400 times lower than the accretion luminosity resulting from the estimated
Bondi mass accretion rate and a radiative efficiency of 10%. On the parsec
scale a jet and a counter-jet extend out from a central unresolved ``core'' in
the 8.4 GHz image. Their orientation is in good agreement with that of the
large scale jets and their bulk speed is relativistic. The parsec scale
spectrum is convex over 2-22 GHz. The observed nuclear luminosity is not likely
to be reconciled with the accretion luminosity by assuming that Compton thick
material surrounds the nucleus. Low radiative efficiency accretion flow models
(ADAF and its variants) cannot account for the observed emission and spectral
shape of the nucleus in the radio band. The power in the jets accounts for a
sizable fraction (\ga 10%) of the accretion luminosity; therefore the mass
accretion rate needs not to be much different from the estimate obtained using
Bondi's theory. A jet dominated origin also for the observed radiative losses
of the nucleus is suggested. This could also explain the finding that a nuclear
luminosity orders of magnitude lower than that of ``normal'' radio loud AGNs is
accompanied by a relatively higher radio emission.
