French, Poles seek IMF job, Europe's tenure queried

PARIS, July 6 (Reuters) France revealed today that it wanted to reclaim the leadership of the International Monetary Fund and Poland said it could field a rival candidate as calls intensified for the abolition of Europe's monopoly of the job.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's chief aide told Le Monde newspaper Paris had its eye on the post, which has been held by Western Europeans, and most of the time by the French, since the IMF and the World Bank were created after World War Two.

That thrust into the frame two names Sarkozy might be happy to see off to Washington, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Laurent Fabius, heavyweights from the opposition Socialist party with serious political and economic credentials.

Meanwhile, Poland said it would be prepared to back former central bank governor Leszek Balcerowicz as a candidate. He would be the first IMF chief from an emerging market country if he got the job.

Rodrigo Rato, a Spaniard, announced abruptly last week that he planned to bow out in October to dedicate more time to family.

Finance Ministers from the 27 European Union countries are due to discuss their options next week in Brussels but pressure is mounting for the job to be open to anyone who is good enough, irrespective of origin.

The IMF board is also due to meet next week in Washington, officials there said, on prompting from developing nations who want an end to a carve-up where Europeans head the IMF with U.S.

support and an American the World Bank with Europe's blessing.

The duopoly has existed since the institutions were created after World War Two, but no longer so truly reflects the balance of economic power since the rise of China and other giants that were economic minnows half a century ago.

CLOSED SHOP In Paris, the comments from Sarkozy's aide Claude Gueant in Le Monde came hand-in-hand with the suggestion by the newspaper of two Socialist grandees, both of whom have had an eye on the job in the past.

Fabius and Strauss-Kahn both combine political and economic clout, although Strauss-Kahn has the communication advantage of fluent English and German -- and both might prefer the job to five years in the ranks of a feuding opposition party.

Gueant did not identify whom Sarkozy had in mind, though he spoke warmly of Fabius and Strauss-Kahn in Le Monde and said: ''As far as I know they are not indifferent''.

''It would be good to regain this position for France,'' the newspaper quoted him saying of the IMF post, held by Frenchman Michel Camdessus from 1987 until 2000 and before him for almost a decade by Frenchman Jacques de Larosiere.

In Warsaw, a government spokesman said Poland would support Balcerowicz, who might go down better with emerging market countries, if his candidacy for the IMF job were made official.

Balcerowicz, architect of a post-communist Polish economic reform plan as finance minister in the 1990s, often clashed as central banker with the current rightist government. He was travelling abroad and unavailable for immediate comment.

In Italy, government spokesman Silvio Sircana said he was not aware of any candidates from there, although the name of central bank chief Mario Draghi circulated in recent days, and some say he may be more interested than he first signalled.

Others European names cited included Briton Andrew Crockett, ex-head of the Bank for International Settlements, and France's Jean Lemierre, who has said he is happy as president of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

OPEN IT UP Pressure is mounting from the Group of 11, which represents more than 110 emerging and developing countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, for the next IMF head to be selected on merit, not nationality.

''This is not the time to be talking about candidates. We want to agree on a process of selection and we want that process to include candidates from other parts of the world, not only Europe,'' said one senior board official from a developing country.

''A meeting of the board has been called for Monday and we hope a process for selection can be agreed that will be open to anybody,'' the official said, adding there was at least one G-11 member which indicated it planned to put forward a candidate.

In 2004, Egyptian-born Mohamed El-Erian, a former senior IMF official, was nominated by Egypt's IMF executive director Shakour Shaalan, as a candidate for the job. In the end it went o Rato.

REUTERSE GT BD1929