Cameron prefers Asian to head IMF

LONDON: UK Prime Minister David Cameron prefers candidates from non-West countries to head the International Monetary Fund.

It was endorsed at talks in Washington last week of the Group of 24 developing nations. “It might be time to have a candidate from another part of the world,” given the rise of India and China, Cameron said to BBC.

“It may well be that actually when you think the IMF has to be listened to and taken seriously by countries not just in the West but all over the world.” Cameron said his predecessor, Gordon Brown, might not be the “most appropriate” person to head the IMF because the job needs someone who “understands the danger of excessive debt.”

While current IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn's term doesn't end until October 2012, political opinion polls show strong support for him in his native France in the approach to next year's presidential election. If he decides to run, he would need to declare by July, the deadline for his Socialist Party's shortlist.