Europe stays out of IMF policy job contest

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe, in an unprecedented break with tradition, has decided to stay out of the running to chair the International Monetary Fund's main policy-setting committee, IMF board and European sources said on Tuesday.

IMF board sources said finance ministers for Egypt, India and Canada were named as candidates for the IMF's 24-member International Monetary and Financial Committee during a recent meeting of the IMF executive board of member countries.

A decision by the board is expected to be announced shortly before the next meeting of IMF member countries in October.

The committee meets twice a year to discuss the direction the IMF will follow and is the public face of the global financial institution, best known for bailing out countries in times of financial crisis.

A European finance minister has customarily been chairman of the committee except for briefly in the early 1980s when Canada filled the seat.

The tradition of a developed country at the helm of the IMFC was challenged last year for the first time by India, which proposed its finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, as a candidate in a move to throw open the job to all members, including developing countries.

Italian Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa won the vote after an unusual and politically intense vote between him, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and India's Chidambaram.

However, Padoa-Schioppa's term was cut short in April when he resigned because of a change of government in Italy following a snap election. Previously, the post was held by Britain's Gordon Brown, who is now British prime minister.