New IMF director-designate Lagarde calls for "entente" in Greece

Jun 28, 2011, 19:48 GMT

Paris - In her first interview after being appointed head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde called Tuesday for an 'entente' in Greece, where a two-day general strike got underway ahead of a crucial vote in parliament on an austerity plan.

'If I have a message to send this evening concerning Greece, it's a call to the Greek political opposition to join the ruling party in a national entente,' Lagarde told France's TF1 television.

For Greece to leave the eurozone would be the 'worst possible scenario,' which had to be avoided 'by all means,' she said.

'All' lenders should be 'at Greece's bedside' she said. 'But Greece must also take itself in hand in a responsible manner,' she said, while appealing to Athens to look out for its 'most destitute' citizens.

Lagarde, 55, was chosen to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as managing director of the IMF last month to fight charges of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid.

Lagarde who has praised Strauss-Kahn's reformist approach to the fund told TF1 she wanted to speak to him 'at length' in order to prepare for her future role, without in any way 'taking position' on the case against him.

Strauss-Kahn's arrest had been a 'very brutal blow for the institution,' where he was an 'admired managing director, who did a good job.'

The leader of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Majority, Jean-Francois Cope, called Lagarde's selection over Mexican central bank governor Agustin Carstens a 'victory for France.'

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe in a statement praised Lagarde as a 'committed and unanimously respected' finance minister, who would enjoy France's support in her new role,

Lagarde has been finance minister since 2007, just two years after she quit her job as the head of an international law firm to go into politics.

Read more about IMF