Bush picks Zoellick as new World Bank chief
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush has chosen Robert Zoellick, a former U.S. trade representative, to replace Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, a senior American official said on Tuesday.
Bush plans to announce his selection on Wednesday and expects the bank's board to accept it, the administration official said. World Bank directors have never blocked a nomination in the past.
Bush wanted an American to succeed Wolfowitz, despite calls from World Bank member countries and some U.S. lawmakers to throw the process open to a global pool of candidates.
The controversy over Wolfowitz's authorization of a hefty raise for his companion, Middle East expert Shaha Riza, deepened rifts among bank staff already disgruntled by his anti-corruption agenda and prompted sharp criticism from shareholder countries.
Wolfowitz also was controversial because of his role as an architect of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq while serving in Bush's Defense Department.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson received "positive reactions" from other countries to the choice of Zoellick, the administration official told reporters.
Zoellick left his job as deputy secretary of state last year to join Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co.
He had been tipped as a candidate last year to become Treasury Secretary, but that job went to then-Goldman Sachs chief executive Paulson instead.
As Bush's first trade representative, Zoellick helped launch the Doha round of world trade talks and completed negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization. He continued a major focus on China as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's top deputy.
MIXED REACTION
"He's an outstanding choice. What he brings to the bank is an ability to get things done, an ability to work with people and an excellent reputation among foreign policy types across the world ... something we badly need," former Secretary of State James Baker, who has worked closely with Zoellick, told Reuters by telephone.
Baker acknowledged that Zoellick does not have extensive development experience, but said he was a pragmatist who "knows how to build coalitions and achieve consensus" -- crucial at a large bureaucratic organization like the World Bank.
Others were concerned about naming another Bush loyalist to head the bank and saw this as a missed opportunity.
"The second, high-ranking George W. Bush administration foreign policy, national security official in a row, I think is a mistake," said Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.
Zoellick was one of 18 mostly conservative figures, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, who wrote a much publicized letter to former President Bill Clinton in 1998 advocating removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
Soon after that he was chosen as a member of the "Vulcans" -- a group of about eight senior-level officials, mostly from President Bush's father's administration -- brought together under Rice to advise candidate George W. Bush on foreign policy before his 2000 presidential election.
Bush made the final decision on Zoellick over the weekend, said the senior U.S. official. Asked whether the World Bank board would approve of Zoellick, the official said, "We have every confidence in that."
"They have got a world class nominee, probably the most qualified person one could have expected from the Bush Administration at this point," said Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
The United States has traditionally selected the head of the World Bank -- a convention started when the institution was founded 60 years ago -- while Europe has chosen the head of its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund.
(Additional reporting by Alister Bull, Tim Ahmann and Carol Giacomo in Washington)
