Developing countries to get shot at IMF job

Developing countries could provide the future head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if they accept Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister, this time round as the new director of the body, according to the president of the group of euro zone finance ministers.

"The next director will certainly not be a European," Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister, told FT Deutschland, the Financial Times'sister paper, in an interview.

"In the euro group and among EU finance ministers, everyone is aware that [ Mr] Strauss-Kahn will probably be the last European to become director of the IMF in the foreseeable future," he said. Mr Juncker's comments come in response to increasing criticism that, by putting forward the former French finance minister, the EU is trying to maintain its claim to nominate the IMF's head.

Under a long-standing carve-up between the US and the EU, the head of the World Bank is usually an American, while the IMF is headed by a European.

Many developing countries have expressed dismay at the EU's nomination of Mr Strauss-Kahn, criticising the union for ignoring the growing economic impact of countries such as China, Brazil and Mexico.

Russia has nominated Josef Tosovsky, the former Czech central banker, as an alternative candidate to Mr Strauss-Kahn. The UK maintains that it would support an open process in which the best candidate for the job were chosen regardless of nationality.

Mr Juncker defended Mr Strauss-Kahn's nomination. The former French minister was a "well-known reformer" who would not leave his "reform ambitions at the wardrobe" of the IMF. "When [ Mr] Strauss-Kahn leaves the IMF one day, he will have adjusted the IMF firmly to the expectations and interests of developing countries," he said.