A shortlist to fill a key job at the European Central Bank began to take shape at a European Union finance ministers' meeting today.
Frenchman Mr Christian Noyer steps down at the end of May after four years as ECB vice president. Ministers said they would discuss the issue over lunch, although his succession is not formally on their agenda.
Many pundits see Greek central banker Mr Lucas Papademos as frontrunner. Spanish Economy Minister Mr Rodrigo Rato, who chairs finance ministers' meetings, praised Mr Papademos's qualities.
Mr Papademos gets much of the credit for running a monetary policy that steered Greece into the euro zone. Greece is the newest EMU member, having adopted the euro in January 2001.
But both Austria and Belgium signalled they could put forward candidates in the debate likely to surface but not end today.
Austria, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal all missed out on having a representative on the bank's first board, which was appointed with most members serving staggered terms of less than eight years.
The summit might intervene if political horse-trading among countries on the Noyer job gets bogged down in the search for some package covering also mid-2003 replacements for Mr Wim Duisenberg as president and board member Mr Sirkka Hamalainen.
Bank of France governor Mr Jean-Claude Trichet is expected to be the next ECB president. But a question mark hangs over him pending resolution of a judicial inquiry into the near-collapse of Credit Lyonnais bank in the early 1999s when he was treasury director responsible for keeping tabs on state-owned groups.