By Stephane Barbier
BRUSSELS, March 10 (AFP) - More countries on Friday gave their backing to Germany's Horst Koehler to become the new European candidate to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Talks continued Friday between the 15 European Union members in search of a consensus over Koehler, whose name came forth after the United States balked at the previous nominee, Caio Koch-Weser, also from Germany.
If no final agreement is announced over the weekend, the subject will be raised Monday at a Brussels meeting of EU finance ministers, a spokesman for the EU's Portuguese presidency said.
Britain joined France and Portugal as declared supporters of Koehler, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and an associate of German ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair called Koehler "an international financial expert."
In Berlin, government spokesman Uwe-Karstein Heye said Germany expected the EU to name Koehler as its favorite to succeed Michel Camdessus of France as IMF managing director.
"The impression is growing that a proposal along these lines will be made in Brussels on Monday," Heye said, adding however that unanimity was required.
Italy is the only major EU country to express reservations. It believes that if Koehler is more presentable than Koch-Weser, he nevertheless lacks the prestige to make a winning impressing in an increasingly political job.
Rome would prefer to see the IMF job filled by one of its Treasury Minister Giuliano Amato.
Koehler's resume includes a stint as secretary of state for finance, a job he held during Germany's reunification. He also helped draft the Maastricht treaty on European unity, and is a familiar face at big international economic gatherings.
US Secretary of state Madeleine Albright, in Brussels on Friday, refused to be drawn on the issue, reiterating only that Washington wanted "a strong and qualified candidate."
Quizzed after a meeting with European Commission President Romano Prodi, Albright said: "We made quite clear that it is necessary to have a very strong head of the IMF, which is an important organization essential to the well-being of the world."
"We have said the United States is for a European candidate," she added. "The importance is to find one who has the qualifications and consensus needed."
Prodi said he had discussed the IMF with Albright, but took no decision. "We will support the European candidate," he added. "We are working toward that."
Washington said that Koch-Weser, while technically qualified, lacked the international political standing for the job, which traditionally has always gone to a European.
Portuguese EU presidency spokesman Manual Meneses said: "We cannot say today that there is a consensus, but consultations are continuing."
"At this stage I do not yet know the outcome of these consultations," he told journalists. "In the next two to three days we will know what is going to happen."
Meneses declined to specify which EU governments were supporting Koehler beyond saying that he was "backed by the Portuguese presidency and by many member states."
But he added: "It is necessary for everyone to agree and to do so clearly."
"If the matter has not been settled by Monday, the ministers will have to consider it," he said.
On the finance ministers' agenda distributed Friday, Koehler's candidacy is marked down as the final item to be discussed over lunch Monday -- with the word "possibly" added.:
