The head of the International Monetary Fund today ruled herself out as a potential candidate for the job of European Commission president.

Christine Lagarde says she instead plans to see out her term as managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

"I'm not a candidate and the reason I'm not a candidate is that I have a job," Lagarde said in response to a question at a news conference in London.

The 58-year-old was France's finance minister under former president Nicolas Sarkozy before moving to the IMF at the height of the Euro Zone's debt crisis in 2011 to replace disgraced French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Her term runs until 2016.

"It's a job that I happen to think is rather important at the moment, which the United Kingdom was kind enough to support me for at the time, which I have to do and which I intend to complete," she said. "As my young son would have said: 'Mum when you start something you've got to finish the job.'"

Earlier this week, French sources said the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, had asked France whether it would be willing to put forward Lagarde to succeed Jose Manuel Barroso as European Commission president.

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