MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bush wants US citizen for World Bank; Blair out of the race

The World Bank Headquarters

President George W. Bush said this week he wants a United States citizen to succeed Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, playing down speculation he might turn to departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the job.

Wolfowitz's resignation announced last week has prompted calls from some Europeans for one of their own to serve as World Bank president. "We'd very much like it to be an American" Bush said in an interview. He said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is in charge of the search for Wolfowitz's successor and will take to Bush a list of those he thinks would be good for the job. Asked if his close ally Blair might be a candidate, Bush said: "I haven't talked to Tony Blair about it, but I do think it'd be good to have a US citizen run the bank." Wolfowitz resigned following accusations that he authorized a pay raise for his companion. Bush did not say when he would make up his mind on who to pick as the next World Bank president, but aides said a decision was imminent. The US, in consultation with other countries, is now scouting out candidates to run the World Bank. Bush's selection of Wolfowitz in 2005 stunned many overseas, especially Europeans who were upset that the president would tap his No. 2 official at the Pentagon and a key architect of the Iraq war to run the bank. By tradition going back to the creation of the IDRB and the IMF over six decades ago, the World Bank has been run by an American, and the US, the bank's biggest financial contributor, wants to keep that practice intact. The IMF on the other hand has been led by a European. Names mentioned for the post include: former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who was Bush's former trade chief; Robert Kimmitt, No. 2 at the Treasury Department; Stanley Fischer, who once worked at the International Monetary Fund and is now with the Bank of Israel; former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker; former Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa; and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.