Keep top job in some int'l institutions with US to get support of world's largest economy: World Bank chief

New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) Outgoing World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said it was important to keep the top job at some international institutions with the United States to get the support of the world's largest economy. "I would just suggest if you want to keep the United States engaged in multilateral organisations, keep openings somewhere ... because the issue is (to) keep the United States supporting some of these organisations," Zoellick, who was on an India visit and who will demit office in June, said here Friday. The US has been insisting that the next head of the Bank should be an American. BRICS - the five nation grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - has been advocating open and merit-based process for selecting the World Bank head, a post traditionally held by an American. On the other hand, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has always been a European. "The top leader is an important role, but not by any means the sole role," Zoellick said, adding that the United States does not dominate all multilateral institutions. "An American has never headed the IMF, there has never been an American UN Secretary General," he said. Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Colombian national and Professor at Columbia University in New York Jose Antonio Ocampo and US nominee Jim Young Kim are in the fray to become the next World Bank chief. PTI