With Wolfowitz's fate in doubt, the 24-member board convenes on Tuesday to consider his future in light of accusations he secured an improper pay and promotion deal for his companion, a fellow bank employee.

Wolfowitz, 63, a former top US Defense Department official and an architect of the Iraq war, has been invited to appear before the board to present his side of the story.

However, his tenure at the helm of the poverty-fighting bank has appeared increasingly tenuous.

A special bank committee investigating the case has already concluded that Wolfowitz broke the organization's ethics rules when he arranged the pay package for his companion, Shaha Riza, upon his arrival at the bank in June 2005.

It remains unclear how the executive board will choose to exercise its authority at an institution that customarily operates by consensus. Will the board hold a vote to sack Wolfowitz, or issue a judgment on the charges against him?

The affair has dragged on for more than a month and divided the bank's 185 member states, with the United States standing by Wolfowitz and European governments pushing for his early exit.

As pressure mounted in recent days amid transatlantic divisions, opponents of Wolfowitz were looking for a way to avoid a direct confrontation.

"The key European leaders don't want to have another controversy with the United States," said Michael Mussa, former chief economist at the IMF and now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"They want Wolfowitz to jump without visibly being pushed," he said.