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Italy backs Koehler for IMF

BERLIN: Italy has assured Germany that it supports its new candidate to head the International Monetary Fund, German parliamentary speaker Wolfgang Thierse said on Sunday.

European Union finance ministers will on Monday discuss who to name as the EU's official candidate for the post after their previous choice, German deputy finance minister Caio Koch-Weser, foundered on resistance from Washington.

Asked at a political rally in Berlin to confirm a magazine report that Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema had given Koehler his blessing during a visit last week, Thierse said the report was correct.

He did not say whether the assurance had been officially communicated to the German government, of which he is not a part, and he gave no further details.

Der Spiegel magazine reported in a summary of an article to appear on Monday that D'Alema "now had no objections" to 57-year-old Koehler.

Italy appeared last week to be cool on the bid by Koehler, head of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini seemed to suggest he did not have the qualifications for the job.

U.S. SCEPTICAL

France, Britain and EU presidency-holder Portugal have already publicly expressed support for Koehler.

But Der Spiegel reported that Washington was seeking to block him. It quoted unnamed diplomatic sources in Brussels as saying they believed President Bill Clinton was rallying international opposition to Koehler via a "telephone campaign".

Koch-Weser dropped his bid last week after accusing the U.S. of secretly campaigning against him "on an absolutely unbelievable scale in all parts of the world".

Asked to comment on the report of a U.S. campaign against Koehler, a German government spokeswoman noted he had not yet been nominated as the EU's official candidate.

"As far as we are concerned, we are awaiting the Ecofin meeting on Monday," she said.

Washington has so far made no direct public comment on Koehler's chances of heading the global lender.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Washington would back a strong European candidate supported by "qualifications and the consensus" but made no mention of Koehler.

Koch-Weser's forced withdrawal was a diplomatic slap in the face for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his campaign to have Germany better represented in international posts.-Reuters