IMF names Strauss-Kahn new chief

The International Monetary Fund on Friday named France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn its new managing director, a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity told AFP.
Strauss-Kahn, a former French Socialist finance minister and presidential candidate, was backed by Europe and the United States, the powers that still dominate the IMF.
The IMF board of executive directors was meeting Friday morning ahead of its expected official announcement of the new managing director.
Strauss-Kahn would take over from Spain's Rodrigo Rato next month, who is stepping down nearly two years before the end of his five-year mandate for personal reasons.
Strauss-Kahn, nominated by the Europe Union, was vying for the top post with Josef Tosovsky, a former Czech central bank governor proposed by Russia.
The 58-year-old Frenchman has pledged to be a "consensus-builder" at the 185-nation financial institution, which bails out countries in crisis but faces its own crisis of relevancy and legitimacy in a world flush with cash and access to capital.
The next managing director faces the daunting task of rebuilding both credibility and relevancy, and the Fund's coffers.
Many countries question its relevancy because voting rights and the structure of representation on the board do not reflect the strength of the new economic powers.
That issue is at the heart of the debate over the unwritten tradition that the leading European powers choose the IMF head and the United States picks the president of the World Bank.
Among the challenges the IMF faces is a lack of borrowers after aiding a number of countries during the 1990s, such as Indonesia, South Korea, Russia, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.