Bruised World Bank ready for new US leader

By Tony Czuczka Jun 24, 2007, 8:32 GMT

Washington - The US nominee to head the World Bank is poised for a warm welcome at a battered aid agency yearning to end its turmoil. But as Robert Zoellick's job moves beyond healing, he is likely to be an assertive leader.

Zoellick, a Goldman Sachs executive who was US deputy secretary of state and chief trade negotiator, is expected to start off by sailing through a formal approval vote Monday by the bank's 24-member governing board. No other candidate was put forward.

'His experience in his previous positions predestined him, as it were, for this job,' a European board member said. 'He will be received with open arms.'

Such effusiveness contrasts with the politically divisive battle over Paul Wolfowitz, who resigned on May 17 under intense pressure from the board over a promotion he arranged for his girlfriend, a World Bank employee. Wolfowitz has insistently denied wrongdoing.

Zoellick, 53, has the immediate task of restoring morale and direction among the bank's 10,000 worldwide staffers after two rocky years under Wolfowitz, whom critics accused of using the bank to promote the Bush administration's agenda.

Zoellick pledged to maintain independence from the White House when he met the bank's 24 directors for four hours Wednesday in what the board member described as an impressive performance.

A veteran diplomat with a reputation for strategic thinking and an impatient streak, Zoellick talked about the need to adapt the 185-nation bank's mission to changes in the developing world.

'He will not have a lot of tolerance for slackers, including intellectual slackers,' said the board official, who requested anonymity.

Africa is sure to remain a major focus under Zoellick, and he has hinted at a greater role for the World Bank in world trade talks. He intends to fight corruption, but is expected to show a lighter touch than his predecessor.

Wolfowitz made the anti-graft drive a hallmark of his shortened tenure, raising eyebrows when the bank cut off loans and contracts to several member countries it deemed corrupt.

His successor will have little time to settle in at the bank's glassy Washington headquarters. One of his first tests will be to raise a proposed 26 billion dollars from donor countries for World Bank loans to the poorest nations in 2008-2011, a boost of 8 billion dollars from the last three-year cycle.

By the annual meeting of World Bank member countries starting October 19, Zoellick would also be expected to present a detailed strategy for his five-year term.

Governments and aid groups will be looking for a sense of the World Bank's changing mission, particularly now that emerging nations such as China, India and Brazil increasingly bypass the bank and look to financial markets for loans.

At headquarters, Zoellick could face conflict over how to deal with senior managers named by or associated with Wolfowitz. He also is likely to be prodded, first and foremost by Europe, to deal with environment and energy issues.

Since US President George W Bush nominated Zoellick on May 30, he has travelled to Europe, Africa and Latin America to canvass for support - a sign of the fence-mending needed after the Wolfowitz fiasco.

But Zoellick has one basic advantage for now: he is not Wolfowitz, the former US deputy defense secretary and co-architect of the Iraq war whom many at the World Bank resented from the start.

'The whole process is much more relaxed than two years ago,' the board member said. 'Under the circumstances, he has a good basis to start off with.'