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Germany's IMF candidate remains in the running, Europeans say

BERLIN: European nations refused to give up on Friday on their candidate to head the international Monetary Fund (IMF), even though he failed to win crucial US support in an informal poll of the IMF's governing body.

Portugal, which currently chairs and speaks for the 15-nation EU, said the group still backs Caio Koch-Weser, Germany's deputy finance minister, after he finished first in Thursday's vote by the IMF executive board but fell short of a majority.

"We have endorsed the German candidate and we are still in that phase," Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama said in Lisbon, Portugal.

The renewed backing came after German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres discussed the IMF confrontation by telephone Friday, government officials said. The two leaders were to meet Saturday in Oporto, Portugal, for more discussions.

"The position of the EU presidency is backing the German candidate," an aide to Guterres said on condition of anonymity.

However, there also were signs - even from Germany - that the Europeans may yet look for a new candidate as they discuss how to proceed. Koch-Weser won the most support of three candidates, but more than a third of the IMF board abstained, including the United States, which has called Koch-Weser unsuited for the high-profile job.

The White House says it wants to stick to the tradition that the IMF post goes to a European, but does not believe Koch-Weser has enough experience or political clout. President Bill Clinton has urged the EU to nominate someone else.

Germany still backs Koch-Weser, government spokeswoman Charima Reinhardt said Friday.

But a top aide to Schroeder, while calling the result "encouraging," hinted for the first time that Berlin might consider a non-German candidate after pushing its European allies to back Koch-Weser.

"We also have to show solidarity toward our European partners now," Michael Steiner, Schroeder's foreign policy adviser, said on ARD television. "Only together can we turn this first success into a full success."

Schroeder himself praised Koch-Weser's first-place finish, with 43 percent, as proof of "European solidarity," adding that the EU also was able to mobilize "much support from emerging countries and the Third World."

"I now assume that a common result with the USA and Japan is achievable," he concluded, without specifying if that meant Koch-Weser or another European APP