German minister says Wolfowitz must decide

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz speaks at a news conference at the International Monetary Fund headquarters building in Washington April 12, 2007. Wolfowitz said on Thursday he made ''a mistake for which I am sorry'' over his handling of the promotion and pay increase of a staff member, Shaha Riza, whom he is dating.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz must decide whether he still has the credibility to head the institution, following controversy over his handling of a promotion for his girlfriend, a top German official said on Saturday.

"For me the most important thing is that the moral authority and the financial stability of the World Bank must not be harmed," German development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul told Reuters.

"He himself has to decide whether he still has the credibility to represent the position of the World Bank," she said.

The comments come as Wolfowitz faces increasing pressure to resign over his role in securing a high-paying promotion for his girlfriend and bank employee, Shaha Riza. The bank's board said on Friday it would decide quickly on how to proceed.

The issue cast a shadow on International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings this weekend, and was a hot topic of discussion at finance chiefs' media briefings.

The World bank is "an institution whose governance and ethics must obviously be impeccable," French Finance Minister Thierry Breton said on Friday. "I fully trust the governing board to draw the consequences it must draw and I have no further comment."

The U.S. administration has stood by Wolfowitz, and the White House predicted on Friday that he would survive the ethics scandal.

"The president has full confidence in Paul Wolfowitz," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said at a news briefing. "We expect him to remain as World Bank president."