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Koehler voted

IMF chief

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund's board of directors on Thursday moved quickly to unanimously endorse Germany's Horst Koehler as the lending agency's new leader.

A statement from the IMF said the 24 directors unanimously agreed on Koehler as successor to Frenchman Michel Camdessus, who resigned in February after 13 years as head of the 182-nation organisation.

Koehler, 57, was put forward by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder after his first candidate for the post, Caio Koch-Weser, a deputy finance minister, was rejected by the United States as lacking sufficient stature.

By unwritten rule over the past half century, the IMF job has always been held by a European while an American has led the World Bank.

But a number of developing countries and Japan, the second largest contributor to the IMF after the United States, indicated they wanted a more open nominating process the next time around.

Koehler is head of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.ÑAFP