WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday renewed its support for embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, but said it would stay out of any discussions on his future at the institution.
"The conversations right now are not between the administration and the World Bank, they're between Mr Wolfowitz and the World Bank and I think it's proper to let the process work itself out rather than trying to insinuate ourselves into it," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
"We still support president Wolfowitz," he added, but dodged a question as to whether US President George W. Bush was still insisting that Wolfowitz stay at the head of the development lender.
"These are conversations really that have been conducted at the World Bank. The president is not getting directly, personally involved to my knowledge."
Meanwhile, US officials complained that public attacks on the former US defense official were undermining the bank's work.
"The focus here really should be on poverty alleviation and the core mission of the bank," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said when asked about concerns that the controversy could discourage governments from donating badly needed funds to the institution.
"The issue of development and poverty alleviation around the world is too important to allow us to be distracted by these proceedings that are ongoing internally to the World Bank," McCormack said.
"Everybody's focus should be on how best to do this and let the World Bank internal proceeses play out as they will," he said.
Wolfowitz is fighting to keep his job after a top-level Bank ethics panel ruled he was guilty of a conflict of interest over a pay raise given to his girlfriend who was also a World Bank employee, US media reported Tuesday.
According to The New York Times, the panel of seven of the bank's 24 board members has formally notified Wolfowitz, the former US deputy secretary of defense, of its findings, a move that is likely to add to the weeks of pressure on him to resign.
05/08/2007 15:21 GMT