UPDATE 1-Russia backs Czech ex-central banker to head IMF

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MOSCOW/Russia on Wednesday nominated Czech former central banker Josef Tosovsky to head the International Monetary Fund.

The announcement confirms news that broke on Tuesday and brings a second candidate into the race to head the global lender after the European Union proposed France's former finance minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

It reflects a growing desire on the part of major emerging market nations to break a decades-old duopoly under which the European Union gets to choose the head of the IMF while the United States picks the boss of its sister institution, the World Bank.

"We held broad consultations with our colleagues from other countries and are convinced that a majority of them support the election of the fund's managing director on a competitive basis," the Russian Finance Ministry said in a statement.

"It is a great honour for me to be considered for the top position at the IMF," Tosovsky said in a subsequent statement.

"I am pleased that my proposed nomination received a positive reaction from finance ministers and governors of several countries from all regions."

The Russian finance ministry statement did not say which other countries had backed Tosovsky's candidacy, but described the 57-year-old technocrat as "the right person, in the right place, at the right time".

Tosovsky, an economist, was governor of the Czech National Bank from 1990 to 2000. He was close to dissident-turned-President Vaclav Havel, who chose him as a caretaker premier during a political crisis in 1997.

He now chairs the Financial Stability Institute in Switzerland, a branch of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Tosovsky's office said he had accepted the Russian nomination, but declined further comment and said he was on a business trip until next week.

The IMF job fell vacant in July after the sudden resignation of Rodrigo Rato, who was in the midst of reforming the 63-year-old fund to boost its monitoring of the world economy and give greater voting clout to emerging powers like China.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]