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5/14/07

EU-Digest: Tony Blair new President World Bank?


A FLASH report from EU-Digest

Tony Blair new President World Bank?

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz may finally be removed from his job over the way he handled a salary increase involving his girlfriend, once a Bank employee. Since the bank's top job normally goes to an American, some European nations are expected to argue quietly that in exchange for Mr. Wolfowitz leaving, President George Bush be offered a compromise: The presidency could go to a non-American for the first time, but one he probably could live with -- departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Adrian Wooldridge, the Washington bureau chief of the Economist magazine, says he has heard a lot of rumors about Mr. Blair's interest in the job and his departure as prime minister in late June would make the timing for a transfer just about perfect.

Mr. Blair is scheduled to arrive in Washington this Wednesday for talks with Mr. Bush. If the World Bank's governing board comes out with an expression of no confidence in Mr. Wolfowitz, the World Bank post could become a subject on the agenda of the Iraq duo?

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