Brazil welcomes open IMF leadership race

Brazil wants to see an open race to head the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Guido Mantega was quoted yesterday by Russia's RIA-Novosti news agency as saying.

Mr Mantega welcomed Russia's nomination of Josef Tosovsky, a former Czech premier and central bank chief, as an alternative to French former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been proposed by the EU.

"I don't think it is right when only one candidate from the EU is proposed for the job," RIA quoted Mr Mantega as telling reporters. "If it (the IMF) wants to represent the whole world, there should be other candidates."

Mr Mantega said Brazil had not yet decided whom it would back. "We will listen to all proposals," RIA quoted him as saying in its dispatch, datelined Rio de Janeiro.