World Bank chief stealing aid money is unacceptable

TOKYO, Aug 9 (Reuters) World Bank President Robert Zoellick today spoke out against corruption in poor countries that receive the bank's loans, echoing the anti-graft stance of his controversial predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz.

''If people are trying to steal the World Bank's money, we can't accept that,'' Zoellick told reporters.

''We are responsible to our contributors and the contributors have their taxpayers. Nobody wants their money stolen,'' he said at a news conference wrapping up his visit to Japan, the bank's second-largest shareholder.

Zoellick, visiting Asia for the first time as World Bank chief, said while countries have different views on how to tackle corruption, they do agree on the need to deal with the problem.

He added that some developing countries would need the bank's support in building social infrastructure, such as a solid judiciary system, to fight corruption.

Wolfowitz, who resigned earlier this year over a scandal involving the promotion of his companion, alarmed some African nations and even those within the bank with his strict anti-corruption drive, which critics feared would slow the flow of aid to the poor.

Zoellick himself has said little about whether he will stick with that strategy or change the way the bank approaches corruption in borrowing countries.

His five-year tenure begins in the middle of the bank's critical year-long fund-raising for its lending programs to its poorest borrowers, which will set the course of the bank for the next three years starting mid-2008.

Zoellick, a former US chief trade negotiator and deputy secretary of state, stopped in Australia, Cambodia and Vietnam before arriving in Japan, a major donor of international development aid.

Zoellick said one of the key purposes of his visit was to urge Japan to maintain or even increase aid despite tight budgetary conditions. He added that the government officials he met expressed support and understanding for his request.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Finance Minister Koji Omi were among the policymakers Zoellick met during his visit.

Reuters CS GC1345