Norway calls for open World Bank chief selection

OSLO, June 14 (Reuters) Norway said today it would support the US nominee Robert Zoellick to become president of the World Bank but that future appointments to lead the bank and the IMF should be open to candidates from around the globe.

The World Bank chief has historically been an American chosen by the United States under an informal agreement with Europe which picks the head of the International Monetary Fund.

But most of the World Bank's 185 members want the system changed, saying that next time the selection should be based on merit, though they have let Washington choose a successor to ousted chief Paul Wolfowitz.

''The Norwegian principled position is that this should be an open competition where everyone should be able to run -- Chinese, Argentinian, whatever, Norwegian for that matter,'' Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim told a news conference with Zoellick.

''We will work with other governments to make such a procedure for future presidential appointments of the World Bank,'' Solheim said.

''That said, we think this is a very good proposal of Mr Zoellick as the new president of the World Bank,'' he said.

Zoellick, a former US Trade Representative, stopped in Oslo during a world tour to raise support for his appointment.

Solheim said that Europe's prerogative to choose the head of the IMF should also be abandoned.

''Both should be changed in the same operation,'' he said.

''There should be no principle that there should be an American head of the World Bank, nor should there necessarily be a European for the IMF,'' he said.

''Both should be open to international competition,'' he said.

Solheim noted that the UN Secretary-General had been chosen from various countries including Ghana and South Korea.

''It's simply a matter of time'' before the system is changed, Solheim said. ''How could China at the end of the day accept that for decade after decade Europe and the United States should have a monopoly on these two positions?'' ''Obviously it will have to change, and it should change both at the World Bank and the IMF next time,'' he said.

Solheim urged Zoellick as head of the bank to pursue the global fight against corruption and to improve the bank's work in Sudan in particular.

He called Sudan ''a test case for the World Bank's ability to assist fragile states in state-building and post-conflict work.'' Reuters AKD VP0147