French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday dismissed comment on the qualification of incumbent Finance Minister Christine Lagarde to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying the Group of Eight (G8) meeting is not the place to take that decision.
G8 is not intended to discuss the subject referring to a new IMF head, because it is not the G8 to determine who to lead the IMF, Sarkozy said at a press conference at the seaside resort Deauville hosting all G8 leaders.
On Wednesday, Lagarde announced her bid for candidacy of the IMF managing director. Later that day, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon expressed support of his government for the French minister.
Owning support from almost all European Union (EU) members to join the IMF contest due in June, Lagarde was described as "an outstanding woman with a fairly predictable, foreseeable character" by Sarkozy.
Earlier on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, attending the ministerial meeting at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, announced that the United States "has not taken a position for the moment" to support any particular candidate.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, resigned from the post of IMF managing director last week following his dramatic arrest in New York for sexual assault allegations.
Though there are calls for an IMF leader from emerging economies, the EU wants to maintain the leadership in the influential financial organization as the eurozone sovereign debt crisis is still weighing the economic recovery of this region.
So far, Mexican Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens is the only declared candidate from developing countries.